We’re in the home stretch of the 2025-26 NBA regular season, which means playoff races are heating up.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the Sacramento Kings<\/a>, the Sixers are tied with the Toronto Raptors at 42-34 heading into Friday’s action. Since the two teams split their season series and neither is going to win the Atlantic Division, their respective division records serve as the tiebreaker. The Sixers (9-7) hold a massive advantage over the Raptors (4-10) in that category, so they’re currently the No. 6 seed and the Raptors are the No. 7 seed.<\/p>\n Both teams are trailing the fifth-seeded Atlanta Hawks by 1.5 games. They’re 1.5 games ahead of the Charlotte Hornets, 2.0 games ahead of the Orlando Magic and 2.5 games ahead of the Miami Heat. The Sixers also have the tiebreaker over Charlotte and Orlando, but the Heat have the tiebreaker over them.<\/p>\n Virtually every team in the race for the Nos. 5-10 seeds in the East is in action Friday night, but the Sixers aren’t likely to get as much as help as they did Wednesday. The Hawks are facing the Brooklyn Nets, the Raptors are facing the Memphis Grizzlies, the Hornets are facing the Indiana Pacers and the Magic are facing the Dallas Mavericks. Orlando is the only one among that group that isn’t favored by double digits.<\/p>\n As usual, we’ve put together a primer on how Friday’s slate of games could impact the Sixers’ playoff hopes.<\/p>\n Timberwolves at Sixers, 7 p.m. ET<\/p>\n This is a massive game for the Sixers, especially since they face the East-leading Detroit Pistons on Saturday on the second night of a back-to-back.<\/p>\n After initially being listed as doubtful<\/a> due to an illness, Joel Embiid has been upgraded to probable<\/a>. (He therefore figures to miss Saturday’s game against the Pistons.) Johni Broome is the only Sixer who’s slated to miss Friday’s game.<\/p>\n On the Timberwolves’ side, Jaden McDaniels is already out with a left knee injury, while Anthony Edwards is questionable due to a right knee injury. Edwards missed Thursday’s loss to the Pistons, which made him ineligible for end-of-season awards<\/a>, so he now has less incentive to rush back with the playoffs quickly approaching.<\/p>\n A win against Minnesota would keep the pressure on Atlanta and Toronto to keep pace, especially with a loss against the Pistons potentially looming Saturday.<\/p>\n Pacers at Hornets, 7 p.m. ET<\/p>\n Don’t look now, but the Pacers are suddenly kind of frisky? They’re riding a two-game winning streak after pounding both the Nets and Chicago Bulls this week. Prior to that, they suffered narrow losses to the L.A. Clippers and L.A. Lakers and beat the Magic as well.<\/p>\n The Pacers’ sudden resurgence is tied directly to the return of Pascal Siakam, who missed 11 of their first 15 games coming out of the All-Star break. He’s played in each of the last six, during which time the Pacers immediately began to resemble an actual NBA team again.<\/p>\n The Hornets have yet to submit their injury report, but they’re fresh off shellacking the Phoenix Suns at home on Thursday. They figure to do the same against Indiana, particularly with all of Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, T.J. McConnell, Jarace Walker and Ivica Zubac all out, but the Raptors also figured to lose to the tanking Kings on Wednesday. <\/p>\n Can the Sixers get another miracle Friday?<\/p>\n Hawks at Nets, 7:30 p.m. ET<\/p>\n Other than Jock Landale, who’s out with a right high ankle sprain, the Hawks have a fairly clean injury report. The Nets will be without Michael Porter Jr. (hamstring), Egor Demin (plantar fascia), Day’Ron Sharpe (thumb) and Danny Wolf (ankle), although they will have both Nic Claxton and Noah Clowney.<\/p>\n These two teams are moving in completely opposite directions, though. The Nets have gone 8-38 since the calendar flipped to 2026. The Hawks have gone 18-3 since the All-Star break. <\/p>\n After this cupcake of a game, the Hawks do finish their season with four potentially tough games (vs. Knicks, at Cavaliers, vs. Cavaliers, at Heat). However, they also have the tiebreaker over the Sixers after sweeping the season series, so they’re effectively 2.5 games up Philly. At this rate, they appear to be cruising toward the No. 5 seed.<\/p>\n Raptors at Grizzlies, 8 p.m. ET<\/p>\n Surely the Raptors won’t lose to a tanking team for the second straight game\u2026 right? <\/p>\n Immanuel Quickley (foot) remains out, but they’ll have all three of Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram and RJ Barrett against the Hospital Grizzlies on Friday. The Grizzlies, meanwhile, are leaving nothing to chance.<\/p>\n Santi Aldama, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Brandon Clarke, Zach Edey, Ty Jerome, Ja Morant, Scotty Pippen Jr., Cam Spencer and Jaylen Wells have all been ruled out. As if that wasn’t enough, Taj Gibson (right foot) and Olivier-Maxence Prosper (low back soreness) are both listed as doubtful. <\/p>\n Barring an absolute miracle from GG Jackson, Cedric Coward and Co., the Raptors should cruise tonight. Even if they do, a road game against the Boston Celtics awaits next on Sunday. That should be a far tougher test.<\/p>\n Magic at Mavericks, 8:30 p.m. ET<\/p>\n This is projected to be one of the few competitive games on Friday’s slate, which is a damning thing to say about a Magic team that entered the season with dark-horse title hopes. <\/p>\n Anthony Black (abdominal strain) and Jonathan Isaac (left knee) are both out, but those are Orlando’s only two notable absences. Meanwhile, Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively II remain out for the Mavericks, and Marvin Bagley III, Caleb Martin, Moussa Cisse and P.J. Washington are all doubtful.<\/p>\n The Magic did recently get Franz Wagner back from a high ankle sprain that sidelined him for 22 games, although he played only 20 minutes in their blowout loss to the Hawks on Wednesday. With the play-in tournament starting in a week-and-a-half, they’ll need him to quickly shake off any rust from that long layoff.<\/p>\n Among any of the Sixers’ competitors in the East playoff race, the Magic arguably have the best chance to lose Friday night, although even that is not particularly likely. The Sixers need to worry about taking care of their own business first and hope they get at least one or two surprise results like the Kings beating the Raptors on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on X<\/a> and Bluesky<\/a> for the latest news.<\/p>\n Unless otherwise noted, all stats via\u00a0NBA.com<\/a>, PBPStats<\/a>, Cleaning the Glass<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Basketball Reference<\/a>. All salary information via Spotrac<\/a> and salary-cap information via RealGM<\/a>.<\/p>\n