What comes next for Sixers after in-season tournament elimination?
The inaugural in-season tournament has officially ended for the Philadelphia 76ers. After going 2-2 in group play with two home losses to the Indiana Pacers and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Sixers were still alive for a wild card berth heading into the final night of group play on Tuesday.
However, it was very wishful thinking to believe the Sixers would have everything break right for them on Tuesday. They needed losses by the New York Knicks, the Cavs, the Miami Heat, the Boston Celtics, and the Brooklyn Nets to advance to the knockout round.
None of those things happened, with the exception of Miami falling to the Milwaukee Bucks, as the Sixers were officially eliminated on Tuesday. Now, the question becomes what’s next? The Sixers will take on the Celtics on Friday, but they do not have a game on their schedule again until Dec. 11 when they host the Washington Wizards.
Well, the NBA will schedule two games among the 22 teams that have officially been eliminated from the in-season tourney. The rules are extremely tough to explain, so here is what’s on the NBA’s official website:
A formulaic approach will determine the matchups for these games using the Group Play standings in each conference (5th-15th). Two of the 22 games will be scheduled cross-conference since there will be an odd number of teams in each conference that do not advance to the Quarterfinals. These cross-conference games will be scheduled between bottom-finishing teams in the Group Play stage subject to travel constraints, and no team will play more than one of its two games cross-conference. The other 20 games will be scheduled within conference featuring teams that are otherwise scheduled to play each other three times over the course of the season wherever possible.
So that’s that! The NBA will schedule two games for the Sixers in the coming days and it will be interesting to see who Philadelphia will face off against.
