76ers Clinch No. 6 Seed, Will Face Celtics in 1st Round of NBA Playoffs

The Philadelphia 76ers clinched the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference for the 2020 NBA playoffs Wednesday with the Indiana Pacers' victory over the Houston Rockets. 

They will face the third-seeded Boston Celtics in the first round.

The Sixers entered the 2019-20 season in the league's exclusive group of legitimate championship contenders thanks in large part to the star tandem of center Joel Embiid and point guard Ben Simmons.

Although Philadelphia remained well above .500 throughout most of the campaign and was on cruise control toward the playoffs during the second half, it rarely played up to the standard of a title threat as part of an up-and-down regular season that was paused four months by the coronavirus pandemic.

The frustrations associated with that often lackluster play showed through at times, too.

"We were soft," Simmons told reporters after a blowout loss to the Miami Heat in February. "The physicality side of things, we gotta step that up. That comes with experience, also just comes with personality. Don't get bullied. Fight over screens, get through screens. If you gotta knock somebody over, knock 'em over. If you gotta hit somebody in the face and knock 'em down so they don't score, hit 'em in the face."

In December, shooting guard Josh Richardson explained the team needed to do a better job of finding another gear when the going got tough.

"I don't think that there's enough accountability in our locker room right now, honestly," he said. "I think that we got some new guys, who don't want to step on toes, including myself. I feel like we kind of go play, and don't compete as much. There's been games that we have and it's been great. But when it's not going good, we got to hold each other accountable. I think that's where a lot of our problems start."

The league's hiatus initially allowed the roster to get healthy, most notably allowing Simmons to overcome a back injury, and it raised the team's potential for the postseason. The point guard's likely season-ending knee surgery once again dampened expectations, though.

Philadelphia still features some capable depth around Embiid but it's probably not enough to make a serious charge toward the franchise's first title since 1983.

Barring the unexpected, the Sixers could head into another offseason facing questions about whether the combination of Simmons and Embiid can capture a championship or if it's time to shake up the core.