Back in April, we did a story titled “Narrative Check: How Many “Marquee” Wins do the Sixers Have?” It was an investigation inspired by a Crossing Broad member who insisted, all season long, that the Sixers hadn’t done anything in the regular season and were going out in the second round of the playoffs.

This individual ended up being right. The Sixers did indeed make an early playoff exit.

At the conclusion of the article, we determined that the best wins the Sixers had in the regular season were both at home, one against the Lakers and one against the Jazz. Those were ultra-rare occasions where both teams actually fielded full-strength starting fives, which resulted in some high-level, meaningful basketball. A “measuring stick” type of game. A “barometer,” if you will.

This individual returned on Tuesday afternoon to present me with what he calls a “record vs. good teams list.” He put together this win/loss list of “top-tier playoff-bound teams who were at full strength when playing the Sixers” –

WINS:

  • Lakers in January
  • Jazz in March (overtime)

LOSSES:

  • Denver*
  • Portland
  • Suns
  • Portland
  • Jazz
  • Bucks*
  • Clippers*
  • Denver*
  • Warriors
  • Suns
  • Bucks
  • Bucks
  • Heat*

His conclusion after compiling this list:

The Sixers played 15 full-strength, playoff-bound, top-tier teams and lost 13 of them. *Yes, they were without Joel Embiid for 5 of those losses but a true powerhouse 1 seed that is poised to do some damage in the playoffs would have won maybe 3 of those 5 losses, or even 2 at minimum. 

Now, that’s a big modifier. If the Sixers are missing their best player, how much can you kill them for those losses? I put more stock in that than this individual does.

The person in question also put together what he calls a “Lucky List,” where each of these wins were “against teams ravaged by injuries and/or COVID protocols in the early first 1/3 of the season” –

  • Miami no Jimmy Butler (twice)
  • Boston no Jayson Tatum (twice)
  • Brooklyn no KD & Kyrie (Sixers actually lost this game anyway)
  • Golden State no Steph Curry
  • Lakers no LeBron & AD
  • Brooklyn no KD & Kyrie & Harden
  • Clippers no Kawhi Leonard

His takeaways from this list:

“The Sixers were positively impacted by luckily missing out on playing many of the league’s superstars. This inflated their record and, if we are being honest, gave them an “unearned” 1 seed. This 1 seed status allowed for folks to cover up the team’s obvious flaws. The lack of “measuring stick” games further clouded reality and allowed for folks to continue to polish their fool’s gold.”

Alright, well, listen – you could certainly make the argument that the Sixers had a lot of luck to get the one seed and they still bottled the easiest path to the Eastern Conference Finals they will ever have. Not once this season did we even get to see full-strength Sixers vs. full-strength Bucks or full-strength Nets, which is a shame and speaks to just how much of a farce the regular season ended up being.

Beyond the Lakers win and Jazz win, the third-best win may actually have been the overtime W against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Clobbering Dallas on the road could go on the list. They beat Boston on the road when Tatum was available and they crushed Atlanta twice at home in April.

Otherwise, the Sixers pretty much just mopped up with the lesser teams on the schedule. They had some really successful road trips, sweeping the Wolves/Pacers/Hornets in January and then winning the road back-to-back against Chicago and Washington. They won four of six on that brutal March road trip and three of four in that Boston/OKC/Dallas/NOLA stretch. There was another three-game road sweep of the Spurs/Bulls/Rockets. They won a lot of games that Brett Brown’s teams found a way to lose in years prior.

It seems cheap to sit here and use revisionist history to criticize a 49-23 team, but there were just so many absences via COVID and injury and load management that it just required us to put asterisks on waaaay too many games. Unfortunately, the Crossing Broad member who believes the regular season was “Fool’s Gold” may be right. Maybe the Sixers weren’t worthy of the #1 seed.

Agree, or disagree?