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PHILADELPHIA — As the final seconds ticked Wednesday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena, the Sixers’ crowd belted out a familiar refrain around these parts.
“We want Boston!”
Thanks to a hard-playing — if not exactly pretty — effort from their team, the Philadelphia fans will be getting just that. The Sixers defeated the Orlando Magic 109-97 to earn the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, where they will face their rivals, the second-seeded Boston Celtics, in a first-round series beginning at 1 p.m. ET Sunday at TD Garden.
Sixers coach Nick Nurse praised his team for “continuing to pick themselves up and keep playing” amid the pressure of a play-in game.
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“I think we played extremely hard,” Nurse mentioned. “I thought we made a lot of winning plays. And of course, to get in the playoffs, I mean, to kind of go back to the opening press conference of the year, I mentioned we got a really, really big hole to dig out of and we want to get in the tournament somehow.
“It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t easy and wasn’t pretty, but we’re here now. And now, we got to see what we can do with it.”
It remains to be seen whether Joel Embiid can return for the Sixers in the series after undergoing an emergency appendectomy in Houston last Thursday. Although he remains out indefinitely, Embiid was on the bench for Wednesday night’s game, marking the first time he’d been around the team since the surgery. It was an encouraging sign, and also a reminder of how quickly Philadelphia’s season has changed over the past week.
The Sixers will have three days off before their series with the Celtics, and a full eight days before their next game at home.
They were able to advance thanks to 31 points and six assists from star Tyrese Maxey across 42 minutes, as well as 19 points and 11 rebounds in 41 minutes from rookie VJ Edgecombe. It was an eventful game for Edgecombe, who received a technical foul for taunting Jalen Suggs after an acrobatic finish at the rim. By his own telling, Edgecombe was also feeling amped for his first NBA postseason game.
Nurse joked that Edgecombe was “wild” throughout Wednesday’s win.
“I guess that happens when you let a kid play in such a high-intensity game,” Edgecombe mentioned with a big smile. “But I was out there having fun. I was having fun. So if I got to play wild for us to win, I’ll play wild.”
Orlando, meanwhile, now finds itself in a win-or-go-home matchup — this time at home — against the Charlotte Hornets on Friday. The winner moves on to face the top-seeded Detroit Pistons in the playoffs.
The Magic were never supposed to be in this position after making a massive offseason trade to acquire Desmond Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies, a move that was expected to boost their offense and vault them into the top half of the conference.
But Orlando is 7-10 over the past month after Wednesday’s loss. Star Paolo Banchero had a rough game, shooting 7-for-22 from the field, including missing all five of his 3-point attempts, and committing six turnovers.
“I think you bounce back by coming in Friday at home and getting the win against Charlotte,” Banchero mentioned. “That’s the goal now. This is the result. You got to move on and go get a win Friday.”
For the Sixers, the focus now turns to Boston, a challenge they know won’t be easy, with or without Embiid.
“We’re playing against winners,” Paul George mentioned. “We’re playing against champions. This is where they play their best basketball. We respect that. We’re going to have to challenge that.
“But they’ve been great for a couple years now. They’re a well-oiled machine over there. Great coach, great roster, two studs, superstars over there. And just a ton of just guys that just know how to play the right way. So it’s going to be a challenge. We just got to be ready for it.”
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