Philly Front Office

Walk a little taller today Sixers fans, a little prouder. For no team (except five others) is as bad as our team. We tried to make things hard on ourselves by allowing game time decision Kelly Oubre to suit up, but we countered by also allowing Andre Drummond to play! What a chess move. In Drummond’s 25 minutes of the floor, he was an efficient -25. Adem Bona on the other hand was an unwelcome +12 in his 23 minutes of court time. For a lead that was cut from 24 to 3 by the third quarter, Drummond’s on-court ineptitude was the difference maker.

I can’t stress enough the importance of last night’s loss. Toronto was playing without anyone even remotely good, and they smoked us. Even NBA enthusiasts would struggle to name anyone on the floor last night. And still, the Sixers lost. I admit, my faith was a little shaken after Sunday’s win against Utah, but the ship has been righted. Now we are in a tie for the 5th seed with Brooklyn, .5 games in front of Toronto, and the Bulls and the play-in tournament not even in sight on the horizon.

Lottery Odds

Getting to the 5th seed means everything. 6th is OK and 7th is terrifying, but #5 is pretty, oh so pretty. (Thank you Tankathon for doing the tie breaking math that I cannot)

1 – 9.8%

2 – 9.9%

3 – 10.0%

4 – 10.1%

5 – 2.2%

6 – 20.1% (Odds split due to tiebreaker)

Total – 62.1 % chance to keep the pick (23.45% increase!!!)

Playoff Odds

A full 5 games out of the play-in. Things haven’t looked this positively bleak all season! Somehow our playoff odds went up though. Time to look in the mirror and punch some nerd in the face.

(Note: If the Sixers qualify for the play-in but don’t end up making the playoffs, they still have a chance to win the lottery)

Per Basketball Reference, our current odds to finish in each place are:

10 or better – 4.3%

11 or worse – 95.7% (.2% decrease?)

Odds of winning the play-in and making the playoffs – .8% (increase of .1%)

For those who just want to watch the world burn:

37.1% chance of missing the playoffs AND not keeping a draft pick (decrease of 23.55%)

Games to Follow Coming Up

Numbers in parenthesis is the number of games ahead and behind the Sixers in the standings. Sixers record is 22-43 with 17 games to play.

March 13

• Brooklyn (EVEN) at Chicago – We will take a break from rooting for Chicago for a game. This is very winnable for Brooklyn.
• Orlando at New Orleans (-4.5) – BACK IN ON ROOTING FOR THE PELICANS! They would really need to go on a run though.

March 14

• Indiana at Sixers – Pacers turned their season around when Philly couldn’t. Don’t look past us TJ
• Toronto (+.5) at Utah (-7) – Utah is on a mission. Time to create some space between us and the 7 spot.