Sixers clinch their fourth consecutive playoff berth with a win over the Hawks

All Wednesday night’s victory did was make it official.

As the Eastern Conference’s first-place team for most of the season, the 76ers were always expected to do much more than reach the postseason. They’re one of the contenders for the NBA title.

But things come in steps, and the Sixers accomplished the first one at the Wells Fargo Center.

They clinched their fourth consecutive postseason appearance with a 127-83 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. No longer in first place, the Sixers (41-21) pulled within one game of the Brooklyn Nets with 10 games remaining. The first-place Nets (42-20) clinched their playoff berth on Tuesday.

“Everybody knows that it’s expected to clinch the playoffs,” Tobias Harris said. “We would have loved to be the first team to clinch the playoffs. But that’s where we are.”

Harris noted this is Philadelphia basketball, where greatness is expected from the Sixers and by their fans. The team’s goal day-in and day-out is to win a championship.

“We’re not a team in the locker room celebrating for clinching the playoffs, right now,” he said. “We want to celebrate when we are able to win, and win big in this postseason. That’s our goal.”

Trouncing the Hawks (34-29) wasn’t as guaranteed as advancing to the postseason, but it was close.

That’s because Atlanta was a shell of itself with six players sidelined.

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Trae Young missed his fourth consecutive game with a left ankle sprain. The standout point guard, who’s expected back later this week, worked out on the court before the game.

Meanwhile, Bogdan Bogdanovic (left hamstring soreness), Kevin Huerter (left shoulder sprain), former Friends’ Central School standout De’Andre Hunter (right knee soreness), former Westtown School standout Cam Reddish (right Achilles soreness), and Tony Snell (right ankle sprain) were also sidelined.

The Hawks can only hope they have more available players when the teams meet again at 7 p.m. Friday at The Center.

But on Wednesday, they had no answers for the Sixers, who had all their players available. This marked just the 25th time in this season’s 62 games they played with their normal starting lineup. They improved to 21-4 in those games.

“I think a lot of teams have had this issues, obviously, and we’re one of them” coach Doc Rivers said of dealing with injuries and COVID-19. “But you know for us, because that’s the only one I can think of, when you think about how young we are and how new we are with each other, and how well we still play that’s pretty incredible.”

While there’s definitely several new Sixers, the squad is actually more experienced than Rivers is letting on.

The Sixers are tied with the Utah Jazz and Milwaukee Bucks as the league’s fifth-oldest team, with an average age of 27.4 for the 15-member regular roster. The Sixers are also the fifth-most experienced team, with an average of 5.8 seasons for members of the regular roster.

Despite that, the Sixers are better than they were expected to be this season.

Rivers said it would be nice to have starting lineup intact for the final stretch of the season.

But ...

“I don’t ever count on it, because the way the year has gone, being honest,” he said.

The Sixers have players who could use some rest days due to being banged up and for precaution. While the Sixers want to finish first in the conference, they need to be healthy for the playoffs.

“But we use our shootarounds,” Rivers said of getting work in. “We go a little bit longer. I think we have one practice left that we can get a little more work in going into the playoffs.

“Hopefully, we will have three or four days off, maybe five [from the end of the regular season to the start of the playoffs] even to get ready. So I’m hoping all that helps.”

But it’s no secret that the Sixers’ postseason success will depend on Joel Embiid. He’ll have to continue to play at an MVP level for them to advance far.

The Hawks were the equivalent of light work for the four-time All-Star and the Sixers.

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Embiid had 17 points on 7-for-16 shooting to go with seven rebounds, three blocks, and one steal in 25 minutes, 9 seconds. This marked the third game he played without the brace on his left knee that he had to wear due to his bone bruise.

Embiid, who was sidelined 10 games with injury, said his knee is “doing good.” He donned a knee brace during his first nine games back.

“It’s hard when you go from something so heavy to [nothing],” he said of playing without the brace, “It kind of feels weird. It’s definitely better.

“But I’m still not moving the way I was before mainly because I’m trying to let the game come to me.”

Embiid doesn’t want to push his knee too much. Nor does he want to skip steps.

“But by the time we get to the playoffs,” he said, “I should be back to the aggressiveness and the dominance that I had before.”

The only thing that stopped him on this night was having to switch jerseys with 4:43 left in the third quarter due to having blood on his initial one. And that only stopped him briefly, as Embiid stayed in the game after the official timeout. But he came out for good with 3:45 left in the third quarter.

Seth Curry had 20 points while making 4-of-7 three-pointers. Harris had 17 points, seven rebounds, and six assists. The trio and the Sixers other starters, Ben Simmons and Danny Green, sat out the fourth quarter.

It didn’t matter, as the game was all but over shortly after it began.

The Sixers held a commanding 20-point lead (37-17) after one quarter. They extended their lead to 31 points late in the third quarter.

Hawks guard Kris Dunn received a technical foul with 8:15 left for shoving Matisse Thybulle. Then Young received one a second later for arguing the call from the bench. That led to the Sixers crowd chanting “Trae Young [stinks]! ... Trae Young [stinks]! ... Trae Young [stinks]!”

The Sixers went on to lead by as many 46 points. They also shot 53.9%, including making 16-of-36 three-pointers, and committed just eight turnovers.

John Collins paced the Hawks with 21 points. Thybulle did a solid defending Danilo Gallinari. The Hawks standout reserve forward was held to four points on 1-for-9 shooting.

But as the Sixers see it, this was just the first step toward their goal of winning the title.

“You got to make the playoffs,” Embiid said. “You got to win the first round, second round, and conference finals and then get to the Finals. It’s a long road. You have to be focused for it, and I think we have everything we need to make it happen.

“So it’s all about us coming out and, you know, just dominating every game.”