With Friday night’s victory over the lowly Brooklyn Nets, at home where they’ve won 14 out of 15, the Sixers are now only a game out of the four seed in the East.

They have the highest number of remaining home games and lowest opponent winning percentage in the league over the final fourteen regular season games on their schedule.

But with a team that turns the ball over this much, so many players who lack experience together or individually, plus a few flat-out unreliable players getting real minutes, very little comes easy.

Friday night was no exception.

While most were fixated on watching the tournament, I spent much of the fourth quarter pounding a table like Kruschev, yelling at the TV, and watching the Sixers in the final minute end up trailing the sorry-ass Brooklyn Nets by three.



Luckily, we had Joel Embiid, who on two crucial possessions stifled the Nets at the rim on D, then either scored or got a good look for a teammate on offense.



Meanwhile Robert Covington, inconsistent or arguably flat-out disappointing ever since Bryan Colangelo paid him earlier this season, knocked down a key open three.

So while they should blow out teams like the Nets in front of a feverish Friday night Philly crowd on Embiid’s born day, there was something sorta poetic in JoJo not letting them lose, asserting superiority on both ends of the floor, then knocking down the second of a game-sealing pair of free throws in the final seconds, to put the Sixers up by four.

The final freebie from Embiid on his 24th Birthday, meant he landed on the point total matching the age he turned that day.

He also hauled in 19 boards, plus was cheated by the scorers out of a couple more.



Wishing all the 24th birthday blessings in the world to JoJo, who’s stayed healthy all season, and as a result is on the cusp of being the best player in the league.

Shout-out to Ben Simmons for almost becoming the only other player outside of Oscar Robinson to notch three consecutive triple-doubles as a rookie, even if he came up two short on the rebounding end.

And props to The Homie aka Shi-Shi aka Super Dario Saric, who prior to an unremarkable performance versus the Nets, has been better than any Sixer not named Joel for a month or so.

The rest of you dudes, please just do your job…especially you, Rob.

It’s almost playoff time…and this is the first time the Sixers have gone into a postseason with any upside or intrigue since 2003.

NFL Free Agency period officially began this past Wednesday.

Early impressions on who played it cool and who played the fool.

SUCKERS