Sixers Playoffs Rooting Guide for NBA Games on April 1

Even without Joel Embiid, the Sixers should be able to take care of business Wednesday against the tanking Washington Wizards. That's the good news.

The better news is that a few of the teams they're competing with in the Eastern Conference playoff race have legitimately difficult matchups Wednesday.

Heading into the night's action, the Sixers (41-34) are still the seventh seed in the East. They're 1.5 games behind the Atlanta Hawks (43-33) and one game behind the Toronto Raptors (42-33), who are fresh off a loss to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night. They're one game ahead of the Orlando Magic (40-35), who beat the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, and 1.5 games ahead of both the Miami Heat (40-36) and Charlotte Hornets (40-36).

The Sixers hold the tiebreaker over the Raptors, Magic and Hornets, while the Hawks and Heat have the tiebreaker over them. The Hornets are off Wednesday after shellacking the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday, but the other teams in the 5-10 mix are all active.

Here's what Sixers fans should be rooting for during Wednesday's slate.

76ers at Wizards, 7 p.m. ET

Even without Embiid, the Sixers need a win here. Their next four games are all against teams that are firmly in the postseason picture, so they need to capitalize on their gimmes when they can.

The good news is that the Wizards are 1-19 over their past 20 games and might be entering Wednesday's game with a skeleton squad. There's no excuse for this game to be competitive in the fourth quarter.

Hawks at Magic, 7 p.m. ET

This might be the game of the night for the Sixers' playoff purposes.

Since the Sixers have the tiebreaker over the Magic but the Hawks have the tiebreaker over them, a Magic win would be better than a Hawks win here. The Sixers would still be a game up on the Magic as long as they handle the Wizards, but they'd only be a half-game behind the Hawks, who would likely fall to the No. 6 seed.

The Hawks get to feast on the Brooklyn cupcake on Friday, but their final four games are against the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers (twice) and Miami. The more Ls they rack up during that stretch, the better their chances are of tumbling out of the top six in the East and leaving a guaranteed playoff spot up for grabs.

The Magic figure to pick up wins against the Dallas Mavericks (April 3), New Orleans Pelicans (April 5) and Chicago Bulls (April 10), but their other three games are against the Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics. As long as they drop two of those three games, they aren't likely to jump past the Sixers in the standings.

Celtics at Heat, 7:30 p.m. ET

This is the other game of the night for the Sixers' playoff purposes.

Other than Nikola Vučević (finger) and Norman Powell (illness), both teams have a relatively clean injury report. Both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have missed games recently, but neither is even listed ahead of Wednesday's game. The same goes for Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo for the Heat.

The Celtics are up 3-0 on the Heat in the season series, and all three of those wins came without Tatum. The Heat were in free fall prior to their late come-from-behind win over the Sixers on Monday, having lost seven of their previous eight games, while the Celtics caught fire since Tatum's season debut.

The Celtics are far enough ahead in the standings that the Sixers have zero shot of catching them. As detestable as it may be, Sixers fans should be rooting for the Celtics to beat Miami on Wednesday to create more separation between the Heat and the Sixers.

Kings at Raptors, 8 p.m. ET

The Raptors are on the second night of a back-to-back, and Brandon Ingram (heel) and Immanuel Quickley (foot) have both been ruled out, while Scottie Barnes (shoulder) is questionable. That might sound like the recipe for a surprising Raptors loss, but unfortunately, the Kings have zero interest in winning games over the next two weeks.

The Kings have lost six of their past seven games, and they'll be comically short-handed Wednesday. Drew Eubanks (thumb), De'Andre Hunter (eye), Zach LaVine (finger), Keegan Murray (ankle), Domantas Sabonis (knee) and Russell Westbrook (right toe) have all been ruled out, so the Raptors will see a heavy dose of Nique Clifford, Maxime Raynaud and Devin Carter.

A Raptors loss combined with a Sixers win Wednesday would push the Sixers to sixth in the East and slide the Raptors to seventh. That's highly unlikely, though.

Bucks at Rockets, 8 p.m. ET

The Rockets laid siege to the Knicks on Tuesday, and now they have a date with the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Bucks on Wednesday. That win pushed them into a tie with the Minnesota Timberwolves at 46-29, and they're not far behind the Cleveland Cavaliers (47-29) or Knicks (48-28).

That's only relevant for the Sixers since they obtained the Rockets' first-round pick via the Jared McCain trade.

The Timberwolves and Cavs are off Wednesday, while the Knicks face the tanking Memphis Grizzlies. By the end of the night, the Rockets will likely be tied with Cleveland for the No. 22 overall pick, while the Knicks should still be 1.5 games up on them. Only 1.5 games separate Minnesota, Houston, Cleveland, New York and the Denver Nuggets, though, so the Sixers' playoff seeding race isn't the only close standings cluster that the Sixers need to keep an eye on over the next week-and-a-half.

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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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