It turns out Joel Embiid wasn’t kidding when he talked about the Philadelphia 76ers’ making the playoffs.
Well that, or he’s still kidding.
Following the Sixers’ come-from-behind victory over the New York Knicks on Wednesday—which featured a game-winner from T.J. McConnell, because it’s 2017, and apparently T.J. McConnell hits game-winners in 2017—Embiid doubled down on his lofty expectations for his upstart squad, per Philly Mag’s Derek Bodner:
Reporter: "Do you get a sense that something is starting to come together here for you guys?"
Embiid: "Yeah, playoff time baby. <laughs>"— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) January 12, 2017
Okay, so, it still sounds like Embiid is kidding. But hey, the Sixers do play in the Eastern Conference, so…
Seven games currently separate the Sixers from the East’s eighth and final playoff spot. Though Philly has the conference’s best defensive rating over its last 26 games, according to NBA.com, it’ll be hard-pressed to make up such a large gap over the course of a half-season.
If rookie Ben Simmons gets healthy and has an Embiid-like inaugural campaign, then maybe the Sixers make things interesting. But it’s hard enough to make up a seven-gap no matter the circumstances; it’s damn near impossible when four other teams are within four games of the No. 8 seed, plus the eighth-place Washington Wizards themselves.
What Embiid has done, or at least spearheaded, is allowed us to see a scenario in which the Sixers contend for a playoff spot in the near future—something that has at times felt impossible over these last three-plus years.
And that’s a win unto itself for an organization that’s been short on them for a while.
