How are Things Going Up There With the Eighth Seed, Milwaukee?

Isn't it terrible that the Sixers are still ostensibly the ninth-best
team in the East, just one team away from a playoff position? Of course,
the Milwaukee Bucks are still seven-and-a-half games in front of us in
that eighth position, and they have the tiebreaker with us so it's
really eight-and-a-half, thus making tonight's game something of a moot
point, though maybe not quite for the Bucks, since after a five-game
Celtics losing streak, they could actually stand a chance at moving up
to the #7 seed and avoiding the unbeatable Heat in the first round. So
there will be playoff implications of some sort when the Bucks visit the
Wells Fargo Center tonight, just not for the Liberty Ballers.


Anyway, the Sixers return home after 1-3 road trip, one which really
should've been 2-2 considering how they blew that game in Denver, but
one in which they were beaten so bad by the Clippers and (Monday night)
the Jazz that one of those games arguably should've counted for two
losses anyway. But the team has played decently at home this year,
especially recently, where the team posted a 3-1 stand against four
teams with better records than them. And after three losses to the Bucks
this year—games that could've landed the Sixers in the playoff hunt if
they'd swung the other way—you can bet they'll be hankering for an
overdue W tonight. (Of course, with the Wizards, Wolves and Hornets all
winning a couple games recently, some stacked-up losses could also help
the Sixers climb to #9 or #8 on the draft board by season's end, so
maybe just root for a close game in which everyone has fun and nobody
gets hurt.)


7:00 tip from the WFC. 13 other games tonight, including ones a lot
more meaningful this one—Denver-San Antonio, New York-Memphis, and of
course, Miami-Chicago. I hear Derrick Rose is finally gonna make his
regular-season return in that one, and by "I hear" I mean "I hope,
because that would be cool."