Sixers

All We Can Do is Throw Our Support Behind the +600 Underdog Sixers and Hope Joel Embiid Rides into Boston on a White Horse

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 16th, 2026 · 9:41 AM EDT

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The Sixers will be the 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs after dispatching the Orlando Magic at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Wednesday night in Adam Silver’s play-in tournament.

There was a solid amount of juice in the building, and the crowd really got behind the boys, who iced the visitors with an Andre Drummond corner three:

ANDRE DRUMMOND SEALS IT FROM DEEP!

THE SIXERS HAVE CLINCHED THE EAST #7 SEED AND WILL FACE THE CELTICS IN ROUND 1! pic.twitter.com/4bxCNiE7IE

— NBA (@NBA) April 16, 2026

Now the Sixers face a familiar foe in the Boston Celtics, who are 3-0 against Philly in the playoffs since the end of the Process era. They didn’t have Jayson Tatum for a large portion of the season, but they didn’t skip a beat, going 56-26 and finishing 6-1 in April.

Do the Sixers have a chance against Boston without Joel Embiid? Probably not. bet365 installed the Celtics as a -900 series favorite, the second largest round one favorite behind the Spurs, who are -2000 to beat the Trail Blazers. We’ll see how the 1/8 games are priced when the play-in tournament concludes, but right now Philly is a heavy dog, and rightfully so because they’re outmanned against the Cs without the former MVP.

For what it’s worth, the Sixers did split against Boston this season, but three of the games were played before Thanksgiving and it’s hard to put a lot of stock into them. One was the season opener, when Embiid went 1-9 from the floor and scored 4 points, but Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe exploded for 74. The other win saw Justin Edwards pour in 22 off the bench in a tight contest that came down to a couple of missed Boston shots at the buzzer. Embiid didn’t play in the second win and Paul George didn’t play in either game, which took place well before the trade deadline.

So you throw the records out the door and hope that the Sixers battle long enough and keep this series alive long enough to give Embiid a chance to return from appendicitis surgery. He underwent the procedure one week ago today, and while there’s been no established timeline for return, all of the doctors on social media, real and fake, are handing out timelines of 2-3 and 2-4 weeks for recovery.

Looking at the schedule for the series, which begins Sunday at 1 p.m., Embiid would clear the two-week hurdle by the time game 3 is played in Philadelphia on Friday, April 24th. If he needs three full weeks, he’s missing games one through five, and maybe six, which is scheduled for Thursday, April 30th. This thing might be over by then.

But you never know. Crazier things have happened, like Nick Foles catching a touchdown in the Super Bowl, and leading the Eagles to their first Lombardi Trophy ever. The Sixers have a bit of the house money thing going on here, same as the Flyers, though the circumstances are slightly different. The Flyers are young and rebuilding and turning a corner and the Sixers were bitten by the injury bug once again. Expectations are relatively low for completely different reasons.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s that there’s nothing wrong with Embiid’s knees right now, nor does he have a broken face or finger or any of the other things that have afflicted him in postseasons past. So if he can make a miraculous recovery here, you never know what may happen.