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76ers’ early dominance at home underscores importance of playoff positioning in competitive Eastern Conference

PHILADELPHIA — When it comes to protecting their homecourt, the Philadelphia 76ers are one of the best in the NBA. For the second straight season, the Sixers have started 10-0 at home after finishing a combined 61-21 in the regular season within the friendly confines of the Wells Fargo Center during the 2017-18 and ’18-19 seasons.

In short, the Sixers are solid at home. This isn’t breaking news, as NBA teams tend to perform better at home than on the road, but the Sixers are a bit of an extreme case. While they were a 60-plus win team at home over the past two seasons, they were barely better than a .500 team on the road during that same span (42-40). That trend has continued this season as the Sixers are just 5-6 away from South Philly.

The Sixers have been clearly better at home, where they have a net rating of 10.6, compared to a -0.5 on the road. They score more points, shoot better from the floor and the foul line, and they rebound better in Philly. But, the biggest drop off comes on the defensive end. At home, the Sixers have posted a defensive rating of 98.2, which would be far and away the best in the NBA. On the road though, that number drops to 106.6, which is close to the middle of the pack. 

The Philadelphia faithful are the driving force behind the Sixers homecourt advantage. The team has sold out over 100 consecutive games and have led the league in attendance over the past two seasons. The fans show up every night, and they’re passionate, and loud. Just ask Jimmy Butler. Or Donovan Mitchell. Or anyone else that has developed into a perceived team enemy. Their passion both serves to motivate and fire up the Sixers, while also throwing opponents off of their games.

“The fans show up every night and it’s something you appreciate,” Al Horford said after the Sixers victory over the Jazz on Monday night. “It gives us energy, it gets us going, when we go on those runs, we really feed off of them. It’s very clear that it’s made a difference for us, and we need to continue to protect home.”

The fans that frequent Sixers games don’t reserve all their ire for opponents either, as they’re not afraid of holding their own accountable. A stretch of poor play (i.e. consecutive turnovers, defensive lapses or mental mistakes) on the part of the Sixers will result in a chorus of boos directed at the home team.  Rather than resent this though, players on the Sixers view the jeers from fans as a call to action that in turn motivates the team to perform better.  

“The fans — we don’t want to lose in front of them,” Ben Simmons said after the 76ers win over Indiana. “We’re scared to lose in front of them… The Sixers — we have the best fans in the NBA. I’m not being biased or anything. You go anywhere else and there’s no atmosphere like it. So we want to give everything we have to our city and it’s a big responsibility.”

Due to the discrepancy between their home and away play, securing a top seed in the conference is monumental for the Sixers for postseason play. The Sixers were a couple of unfriendly bounces on a Kawhi Leonard buzzer-beater in Game 7 from a potential Eastern Conference finals appearance last season. That game was played in Toronto, as the Raptors had the superior regular-season record between the two teams. What would have happened if that game was played in Philadelphia instead? We’ll never know, but considering how close they were from winning on the road, you’d have to like the Sixers chances of pulling out a win.

Thus, the Sixers have been gunning for top seed in the East since the onset of the season for that exact reason. They know that their best chance at winning such a game next spring will come in front of their own fans, especially considering how dominant the other top contenders in the conference have also been at their own arenas this season; the Bucks, Celtics, Raptors, and Heat are a combined 34-2 at home at the time this was typed. Considering this, it’s very possible, likely even, that homecourt advantage will ultimately determine the conference champion.

“I think we should play every game at home,” Tobias Harris joked after the Pacers game. “But overall, we say every game before we go out there, ‘protect our house.’ And for our team we’ve stated that we want to be a home-court team come playoffs, and that’s a big thing for us, so we’re striving for that. But our crowd, our energy, the atmosphere, it’s real. When you come out here and play against us, it’s a dogfight not only how we play, but also how interactive and how excited our fans are. It’s a real atmosphere.” 

While being a dominant home team is great, being a versatile team is even better, and the Sixers clearly need to improve their road play. In the meantime though, they also need to do all that they can to secure as high of a seed as possible in the East’s playoff picture to ensure that if their season comes down to a seventh game again, it will be played in front of their own fans. 

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