As they settle into the life of 82-game NBA seasons, players become accustomed to flushing games from their minds and shifting focus to the next one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sixers still haven\u2019t forgotten what happened the last time the Magic visited Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey beat us down pretty bad the last time they played here,\u201d Paul George said Sunday night, \u201cso that\u2019s motivation enough for us to go in and protect home court with a chance to lock a seed in.\u201d<\/p>\n
George spoke after the Sixers\u2019 regular-season finale win over the Bucks<\/a>. Once their game ended, the Sixers could be heard in the locker room reacting to the final minutes of Orlando\u2019s game against the Celtics. No guesswork was required about the Sixers\u2019 positive feelings on the Magic\u2019s loss to Boston. The Sixers will now host the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in tournament matchup on Wednesday night instead of visiting Orlando.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI guess that\u2019s the closest I get to March Madness, because I never did that before,\u201d Tyrese Maxey said of the team viewing experience. \u201cBut that\u2019s just cool, that\u2019s just fun. Cool moment for our team.\u201d<\/p>\n Maxey also remembers the lopsided loss George referred to. Back on Nov. 25, the Magic obliterated the Sixers by a 41-point margin.<\/a><\/p>\n The Sixers won the other two games in the regular-season series and were missing numerous key players that night. Maxey\u2019s not inclined to brush the blowout aside, though.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was so long ago, but we owe them one for home,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to try to avenge that loss. That was a really bad loss for us. \u2026 It\u2019s a good team. It\u2019s a really, really good test for us. \u2026 Good opportunity for some guys who don\u2019t have postseason experience to get some, too. I think it\u2019ll be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Like the Sixers, the Magic finished in the middle of the NBA pack this season in both offensive rating (18th)<\/a> and defensive rating (13th).<\/a> Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Desmond Bane all averaged over 20 points per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPretty physical team,\u201d Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said. \u201cLooks like they\u2019ve got everybody back now, too. \u2026 They\u2019ve hardly been healthy all year. Big wings and aggressive guards. (Jalen) Suggs and Bane are two competitive, physical guys back there. Banchero and Wagner at the wings. And they\u2019ve got some decent depth.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c(Anthony) Black has had a great season when he\u2019s been healthy, too. Very talented team. They\u2019ve been one of the many teams in the league that hasn\u2019t been very healthy this year, so it\u2019ll be a really tough game.\u201d<\/p>\n If the Sixers beat the Magic, they\u2019ll secure the Eastern Conference\u2019s seventh seed and face the second-seeded Celtics in Round 1 of the playoffs. If they lose, they\u2019ll play the winner of the No. 9 vs. No. 10 meeting between the Hornets and Heat. A victory there would mean a first-round series against the No. 1 Pistons. A loss would mean elimination.\u00a0<\/p>\n For young members of the Sixers\u2019 rotation like VJ Edgecombe, Dominick Barlow and Justin Edwards, postseason basketball will be completely new.\u00a0<\/p>\n What should they expect?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJust be prepared for anything,\u201d Maxey said. \u201cA lot of weird things happen in playoff games. But trust your work. Shoot the ball when you\u2019re open, make plays when you\u2019re open, pay attention to detail, know the scouting report. That\u2019s really it.\u201d<\/p>\n Andre Drummond plans to highlight a few major points he\u2019s picked up over the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJust the attention to detail,\u201d Drummond said. \u201cEvery possession counts, every possession matters. One bad possession can lead to a five-point (swing) for a team. So we have to be really focused on both ends of the floor, take great shots, get stops, play our game and not allow them to speed us up.\u201d<\/p>\n With 75 games of a stellar rookie season under his belt, Edgecombe\u2019s first postseason action is on deck.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to just going out there and playing,\u201d he said. \u201cLast time they played here, we know the score.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe know they\u2019re a good team. They lost just now and they feel like they\u2019ve got to prove something. And we feel like we\u2019ve got to prove something also. Best team wins.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As they settle into the life of 82-game NBA seasons, players become accustomed to flushing games from their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,3845,7,6,11,526,678,207,3817,5902,4186,1263,971],"class_list":{"0":"post-709490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-andre-drummond","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-playoffs","13":"tag-paul-george","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","16":"tag-philadelphia76ers","17":"tag-sixers-analysis","18":"tag-sixers-news","19":"tag-tyrese-maxey","20":"tag-vj-edgecombe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116396159403231188","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}