Tuesday night, the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Brooklyn Nets 124-118, a second straight win to move Mike Budenholzer’s team to 41-24 on the season.

They’re still third place in the Eastern Conference, but the pair of wins pushed the Sixers further in front of Brooklyn, with the NBA standings currently looking like this:

The Sixers have the tiebreaker over Brooklyn, which means their magic number is five. They’ve got seven games remaining, so a record of 5-2 will get it done, regardless of what happens with the Nets or Bucks.

Remaining on the calendar for Philadelphia is a road game in Houston, followed by home games against the Pelicans and Pistons. They play at Indy and Miami, and then finish the season with two home games against Orlando. None of those teams are currently in the top five of either conference.

Brooklyn, meantime, plays the following schedule:

at Dallas, at Denver, at Chicago, vs. San Antonio, vs. Chicago, vs. Cleveland

If the Sixers can wrap this thing up early, they can rest Joel Embiid in one or both of the Orlando games, and avoid the Nets and Bucks in the second round. That would be a huge victory, and ensure home court if they can advance to the conference finals.

As the great Tom McGinnis would say, “get excited!”