Joel Embiid not concerned with Sixers’ playoff seeding: ‘It doesn’t matter where we end up’

Securing the sixth seed would give the Sixers a week of rest and more time to prepare for a first-round opponent.

Sixers center Joel Embiid brings up the ball during a game against Oklahoma City in his first game back from injury on Tuesday.Read moreHeather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

Published April 6, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET

MIAMI — Joel Embiid will tell you that how the 76ers qualify for the postseason is irrelevant.

“We don’t care where we end up,” Embiid said Thursday night. “For me personally, I didn’t have to come back. I love to play. I love playing basketball, and it doesn’t matter.

“Obviously, I would rather not be in the play-in tournament. But that’s a situation that we’re in. If that’s where we end up, that doesn’t change. We are still going to go out there and try to win every single game. So it doesn’t matter where we end up.”

But the eighth-place Sixers (42-35) are 1 ½ games behind the sixth-place Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference standings with five games remaining.

So while it may not matter to Embiid, the Sixers, who have the league’s easiest remaining schedule, have a an outside chance to secure the sixth seed. And that would be a major benefit.

The top six seeds in each conference automatically qualify for NBA playoffs, which begin April 20.

Meanwhile, the tourney is designed to determine the final two spots in the playoffs among teams that finish between seventh and 10th place in their respective conferences from April 16-19.

The seventh- and eighth-place finishers will get two chances to win a play-in game. The ninth- and 10th-place teams will meet, with the winner needing an additional victory to secure a playoff berth.

Securing the sixth seed would give the Sixers a week of rest and more time to prepare for a first-round opponent after concluding the regular season against the Brooklyn Nets on April 13 at the Wells Fargo Center.

The extra practice would enable Embiid to mesh better with his teammates. Thursday was his second game back after missing two months following left knee surgery. The extra time also benefit the recovery processes of sidelined standout perimeter defenders De’Anthony Melton (back) and Robert Covington (bone bruise).

The Sixers would like to have a better grasp on both situations regardless of when they begin the postseason.

“I think the key for us is to get healthy, me finding myself,” Embiid said. “Obviously, we’re missing De’Anthony. I think he’s going to be a huge part of us. Covington is going to be a big part of us. Both guys playing defense and knocking down shots, good hands. I think we have a pretty good chance. We just need to find rhythm.”

They’ll try to continue to work on that during Saturday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedExForum.

The Sixers put together consecutive solid victories that coincided with Embiid’s return. Before beating the Heat on Thursday, they outlasted Oklahoma City Thunder, 109-105, at home Tuesday.

Those two victories improved the Sixers to 28-8 in games Embiid has played this season. They are 14-27 without him. Twenty-nine of the 41 games the 7-foot-2, 280-pounder has missed came after he suffered the knee injury.

“It was tough,” Embiid said of watching teammates play without him. “We had a lot of close ones. I felt like it most of those games, we were in those games. We had a chance to win. We made a couple of mistakes. But I was just encouraged by the fight.

“I thought our defense, we took a step defensively. We started off pretty bad. But the last couple games, they’ve been killing it defensively. And offensively, we found ways. But that’s part of why I’m here, to get these guys more wide open than they have been doing these last two months.”