I wrote during the All-Star break about the Sixers’ relatively easy path to the playoffs. At the time, only 10 of 27 remaining games would be played against teams currently in playoff position. All they really had to do was navigate a road-heavy three-week stretch to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

They’re almost there.

The light grows bigger and brighter. It calls to the Sixers like the visual counterpart to the Sirens of Greek mythology, a hypnotic beckoning, pulling us closer and closer to postseason basketball.

There will be no shipwreck, not that I can see. The Sixers are not weak-minded sailors, but mentally-steeled Argonauts, not the Canadian football variety, but the kind who can drown out the bullshit in search of the Golden Fleece.

Brett Brown’s team is 5-3 since that article and currently sitting in 6th place in the Eastern Conference with a 35-28 record. Seven more victories guarantees the club’s first winning season since 2011/2012, when the Sixers went 35-31 in the lockout-shortened year. You’d have to go all the way back to 2004/2005 to find the last winning record from an 82-game slate, a 43-39 campaign that featured a first round playoff drubbing at the hands of Detroit.

Adjusted after eight games, here’s what the Sixers’ final quarter of the schedule looks like:

  • 11 home games
  • 8 road games
  • 4 back-to-backs
  • 5 games vs. teams currently in playoff position (4 at home, just 1 on the road)
  • 14 games vs. teams not currently in playoff position

They’re on pace to win 45-47 games, no joke. Tonight’s matchup in Miami is the last road game against a playoff team.

That bears repeating.

Tonight’s matchup in Miami is the last road game against a playoff team. The other four playoff squads on the docket are Cleveland, Milwaukee, Minnesota, and Indiana, all at home. Denver is on the slate, too, and they just fell to 9th in the west last night. Even including the Nugs, that’s not exactly murderer’s row. No Raptors, Celtics, Rockets, Warriors. None of that. The trickiest part is navigating the back-to-backs that came about as a result the wonky London trip.

When you look at the east, a total of 4.5 games separates the 3rd seed and the 8th seed:

Detroit is five games below the line, so the Sixers have a seven-game playoff cushion right now. The jockeying for positions is going to be really entertaining down the stretch, and even though the east is just fighting for the right to get smoked by Houston or Golden State, it’ll be fun for Sixer fans to experience meaningful spring basketball for the first time in a long time.

Here’s how the competition shapes up with schedule strength:

Cleveland Cavaliers

  • 8 home games
  • 10 road games
  • 2 back-to-backs
  • 9 games vs. teams currently in playoff position (5 at home, 4 on the road)
  • 9 games vs. teams not currently in playoff position

The Cavs are currently on game two of a six game road trip.

They play at Portland, at the Clippers, and get Toronto twice at home. The April 6th trip to Philadelphia is the second night of a back-to-back, coming off a Washington home game.

Warshington Wizards

  • 8 home games
  • 9 road games
  • 5 back-to-backs
  • 10 games vs. teams currently in playoff position (4 at home, 6 on the road)
  • 7 games vs. teams not currently in playoff position

A rough outlook for the Wiz, who are saddled with five back-to-backs and road games against New Orleans, Boston, Cleveland, San Antonio, and Houston.

They play four of six April games on the road and finish with a Cleveland/Atlanta and Boston/Orlando back-to-back. It’s one of the harder back-end schedules out there.

Indiana Pacers

  • 7 home games
  • 9 road games
  • 1 back-to-back
  • 11 games vs. teams currently in playoff position (4 at home, 7 on the road)
  • 5 games vs. teams not currently in playoff position

A savage stretch that features two games against Golden State, plus road trips to Boston, Philly, Toronto, and New Orleans. The silver lining is that the schedule is spread out well enough that the only back-to-back will be played April 5th and 6th, but that happens to be a home/away with the Warriors and Raptors.

Woof!

Miami Heat

  • 10 home games
  • 7 road games
  • 1 back-to-back
  • 8 games vs. teams currently in playoff position (5 at home, 3 on the road)
  • 9 games vs. teams not currently in playoff position

Miami has a much better outlook than Cleveland, Washington and Indy.

The toughest games look like the trips to OKC and Portland that precede a home stand against the Cavs, Nets, Hawks, and Bulls. that’s favorable.

Milwaukee Bucks

  • 7 home games
  • 10 road games
  • 1 back-to-back
  • 7 games vs. teams currently in playoff position (3 at home, 4 on the road)
  • 10 games vs. teams not currently in playoff position

Not a bad outlook for the Bucks, who have lost 6 of 7 and are quickly falling down the table.

They still have to play in Oakland as part of a four game road swing, so we’ll see where they stand after that run of Clippers/Warriors/Lakers/Nuggets.

Milwaukee finishes the season at Philly, a game that may or not not feature Embiid and Giannis depending on how the seeding shakes out.

Detroit Pistons

  • 7 home games
  • 10 road games
  • 1 back-to-back
  • 5 games vs. teams currently in playoff position (3 at home, 2 on the road)
  • 12 games vs. teams not currently in playoff position

I think they’re cooked. They’ve lost 7 of 8 and now sit at 29-36, five games behind Milwaukee, with a six-game road trip coming up.

The Pistons’ back-end schedule isn’t loaded with slobber-knockers, but ten are on the road, including trips to Houston and Portland. They get Toronto, Philly, and Washington at home.

Detroit needs to go 12-5 to finish .500, and that certainly is not happening. It looks like it’s going to be that clump of five teams shuffling for seeding without any real threat of falling out of the top-eight.

On paper, it looks great for your team, your town. Look at the remainder of the March schedule that follows tonight’s game:

It’s there for the taking, home court advantage. I’m with Brett Brown, though. It’s more important to “deliver” a healthy Joel Embiid to the playoffs in general, rather than a ragged Jo to the 4th seed.

But that’s just like, my opinion man.