Sixers’ second half schedule breakdown

Wednesday afternoon the NBA released the second half of this season's schedule. The Sixers have almost an even split between home and road games, playing 17 of their 36 games at the Wells Fargo Center.

Similar to the first half of the schedule, the Sixers have a light start. This should give them a chance to build good momentum coming out of the All-Star break. Their first four matchups are against the Bulls, Wizards, Spurs, and Knicks.

Their first big matchup will come on March 17th, when they face off against Giannis and the Milwaukee Bucks. After not seeing the Bucks at all in the first half of the season they will face them three times in the second half, with the last two games being a mini-series. That should be good preparation for a potential playoff matchup.

The back end of the schedule is fairly light for the Sixers, but there are two tough stretches in the middle that could give them some trouble. Their first tough stretch comes at the end of March, wherein one week they will have to face off against the Warriors, Lakers, Clippers, and Nuggets all right in a row.

After that their next big challenge comes in the middle of April. Where in 12 days, the Sixers will have to face off against the Mavericks, Nets, Clippers, Warriors, Suns, and Bucks twice. This could be a run of games that gives them some trouble.

Things wrap up quite nicely for the Sixers in the end as their schedule closes out nicely. Outside of games with the Pacers, Heat, and Pelicans, the Sixers have a lot of favorable matchups as they gear up for the postseason.

They will conclude the regular season with two-game series against the Orlando Magic. Depending on how playoff seeding shapes out, that should be a rather easy two games to lead into the start of the playoffs.

The cluster of matchups with elite teams in the middle of the schedule isn't exactly ideal for the Sixers, but this schedule still favors them in sorts. They have a great chance to set the tone at the start and close out strong. If they can survive the tough stretches at the end of March and April, the Sixers can set them up to be in a nice position in the Eastern Conference come playoffs.