A match. It’s what’s left of regular season for the Sixers. Doc Rivers’ team has beaten the Pacers and reaches 50 wins for the first time since 2019. Year in which, let’s remember, Kawhi Leonard eliminated the Philadelphia team with that winning shot that is already part of the history of the best League in the world. The Sixers have not been so close to the ring again with the center project, and it does not seem that they will be in the short term. The experiment with James Harden has been short-lived and does not give the feeling of continuity after a brilliant start but a subsequent slump. And the test will be from the first round in an Eastern Conference that is red hot.
The victory against the Pacers has been one more for the Sixers in a season of many peaks that has had Joel Embiid as a common denominator. The pivot has made the umpteenth exhibition of him in his eternal fight for an MVP who has more candidates than ever: the fight seems to be with Nikola Jokic, but the string of opponents is very long (Giannis, Doncic, Tatum…). In Philadelphia, 41 points (16 in the third quarter) and 20 rebounds to end a Pacers already without aspirations and thinking about the future. Embiid rounded out the display with 4 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block (but 5 turnovers) and a shooting display: 14 of 17 in field goals, 2 of 2 in triples and 11 of 15 in free throws.
Harden was the companion in the victory of the Sixers, the fourth in the last five games. The shooting guard, almost definitively reconverted as a point guard, went to 22 points and 14 assists, but he is still the weakest leg of the table on which the team of a Doc Rivers more questioned than ever stands. Defenses with no practical solution have been a constant with Harden, who is going to have problems ahead of the playoffs and is far from being the man who came to Philadelphia with extraordinary desire and very close to that player who left through the back door of the Nets.
The match against the Pacers (who had 7 players above ten points) is anecdotal in a season that is now entering a key moment. The Sixers can be third if they overtake the Celtics and face the Bulls in the first round, an almost better option for them than the one that would face them, if they finish fourth, against a rising Raptors with the consequent trips to Canada. It’s the moment of truth for the Sixers, in which it will be decided if a project that has not even disputed a Conference final has a future or it will remain in a failed transfer (Harden’s) and a lonely hero (Embiid). We will see.