Hopes were high coming into this Sixers season, and they’ve been living up to that expectation all year. With just six games to play and a two-game lead on Brooklyn for first place, we’re starting to come down to the wire. The playoff picture right now couldn’t be set up any better for the Sixers. Let’s take a look.

First Round Matchup

Everything about this current bracket is just absolutely perfect. The Wizards, Pacers, Hornets, and Celtics are the current four teams fighting for those last two spots. The play-in tournament will start on May 18th, and you can see in the tweet above how that works.

The Sixers are 11-0 on the season against those four teams (CHA, IND, WAS, and BOS). I’ll say it again for you. The four potential Sixers first-round matchups (as of right now) have not beaten the Sixers one time this year. Any of these four options would be great for the Sixers in the first-round.

Second Round Matchup

While everything looks perfect based on the first-round matchup, I’m almost just as confident in our chances of winning the second-round. You have a young Knicks team (that Ben Simmons has NEVER lost to) as the current four seed. You have an Atlanta Hawks team that really isn’t that good and just got hot at the right time as the current five seed. Those two teams being the second-round matchup is a fever dream.

The Sixers are 5-1 against the two potential second-round matchups (ATL, NYK) on the season. (Once again, the bracket is always bound to change, but right now, this is how it stands). If you add those numbers up, the Sixers have a total record of 16-1 against their possible first and second-round matchups. The #1 seed has truly never been more important, based on the lineup of who we will have to play, vs who the Nets and Bucks will have to play.

Nets Potential Matchups

The Nets are going to have one extremely tough playoff schedule. If the bracket sits how it currently is, the Nets could have to play one of the four play-in teams and then the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round. I don’t know about you guys, but I like my chances way more playing the Knicks or the Hawks second round rather than the Bucks. A starting lineup that has played seven whole games together in Kyrie/KD/Harden is bound for a rough second-round matchup.

Sixers Remaining Schedule

The Sixers have six games remaining on the season, including two more back-to-backs on the year. Here is how the schedule lines up for the remainder of the year.

• vs Pelicans 5/7*
• vs Pistons 5/8*
• @ Pacers 5/11
• @ Heat 5/13*
• vs Magic 5/14*
• vs Magic 5/16
• (* represents back to back)

6 games. 4 wins. That’s all we need from the Sixers. With the team currently holding the tiebreaker with Brooklyn, all the Sixers need to do is win 4 out of their last 6 games to officially clinch the #1 seed. If they win 4, and Brooklyn wins out, they will tie for the first seed, and the Sixers will take control due to the tiebreaker. In the past, we’ve always walked around confidently saying “this is a game the Sixers never win”, and that is the complete opposite this year. They’ve won the games (for the most part) that they were supposed to, they have blown their past road woes out of the water, and they aren’t playing down to their opponents. Those three things are going to be very important in these last six games, in the quest to lock up that #1 seed.

There’s a lot going on here, I get it. The NBA Playoff bracket gets crazy, especially with the play-in tournament. There are three things that I’d love to happen over the next two weeks that will put my championship hopes absolutely through the roof.

• Sixers win 4 of their last 6 (but hey, win out if you can)
• The bracket stays how it currently is
• Furkan Korkmaz gets healthy fast (because man, I need Furkan energy in the playoffs)

The vibes are immaculate in Philadelphia right now, and they’re going to be even more immaculate when Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons are on top of a bus holding the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. But hey, let’s get that one seed before we talk about any of that other fun stuff.

The Sixers matchup Friday night against the New Orleans Pelicans at 7:00 EST, looking to continue their current six game win streak.

Mandatory Credit: Philadelphia 76ers