How the Flyers Screwed the Sixers in the NBA's Play-In Tournament

The NBA's play-in tournament is making the Sixers' case for why they need their own stadium.

Currently, the Sixers share the Wells Fargo Center with the Flyers. That's proving problematic this week.

The No. 7 seed in each conference gets to host the No. 8 seed in the opening game of the play-in tournament. In three of the past four years, both No. 7 vs. No. 8 games were on Tuesday and the No. 9 vs. No. 10 games were on Wednesday. The loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game then takes on the winner of the No. 9 vs. No. 10 game on Friday.

However, the Flyers are slated to play the Montreal Canadiens at home on Tuesday in their final game of the regular season. That means the Sixers can't play at home on Tuesday night. Instead, they'll take on the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, while the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat will battle Tuesday in the No. 9 vs. No. 10 game.

The Western Conference doesn't have this problem. The No. 7 seed Phoenix Suns will host the No. 8 seed Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night, while the No. 9 seed Los Angeles Clippers host the No. 10 seed Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night.

The higher seeds typically play Tuesday to give the loser of that game an extra day of rest compared to the No. 9 and No. 10 seeds. There should be some benefit to finishing ahead of those teams in the standings.

Unfortunately, the Sixers and Magic won't get to reap that benefit thanks to the Flyers. This isn't the first time that's happened, either.

Can NBA, NHL avoid overlap?

This is only the second time that the Sixers have wound up in the play-in tournament. They were the No. 7 seed in 2024 as well, so they got to host the No. 8 seed Miami Heat.

And like this year, they hosted the game on Wednesday instead of Tuesday thanks to the NHL. The Flyers had their final game of the regular season against the Washington Capitals at home that Tuesday.

That didn't faze the Sixers, who rallied from an early deficit to beat the Heat, 105-104. Two days later, the Heat trounced the Chicago Bulls in the win-or-go-home game to earn a date with the top-seeded Boston Celtics. Except unlike in 2022-23, when the Heat became the first play-in team to make it to the NBA Finals, they got knocked out by the Celtics in the first round in 2024.

The NBA handled the 2024 play-in tournament differently, though. To avoid giving the ninth-seeded Bulls or 10th-seeded Atlanta Hawks a rest advantage over the Sixers or Heat, both Eastern Conference games were on Wednesday and both Western Conference games were on Tuesday.

This year, the 7-8 West game and 9-10 East games are on Tuesday, while the 7-8 East game and 9-10 West game is on Wednesday. The ninth-seeded Clippers don't share the Intuit Dome with anyone, and the Intuit Dome does not appear to be hosting an event Tuesday.

Why the NBA couldn't have followed the same format as the 2024 play-in tournament with both West games on Tuesday and both East games on Wednesday is anyone's guess. But thanks to that decision, the Sixers or Magic will now be at a rest disadvantage against whichever of the Hornets or the Heat win the 9-10 game.

In 2023, NBA senior vice president of broadcast scheduling Thomas Carelli described the act of juggling schedules at this time of year between the NBA and NHL as "a big jigsaw puzzle" while speaking with ESPN's Andrew Lopez. The leagues share 10 arenas, so it might not be feasible to reserve every NBA team's stadium for the week of the play-in just in case those teams make it.

But the overlap between the Flyers and Sixers has put the latter in a tough spot as they battle for their playoff lives.

"At the end of the day, our lease terms detract from our ability to set the most competitive NBA schedule and we are committed to having our own building just like every other professional sports team in Philadelphia," the Sixers said in a statement to PhillyVoice in July 2023. "There is a good reason why Flyers, Eagles, Phillies, and Union all own their own building—it positions them for maximum control over their schedule, fan experience, and player experience."

If only they knew how prescient that would wind up being.

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Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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