one way or another the sixers faced the least capable of winning teams.
By comparison the Celtics had the opposite kind of luck. In our last 17 games we only played 6 lottery teams. While some people may think all schedules are equal this is simply not true.
The Knicks earlier in the season with Porzingas were hanging around about 8 games under .500.
The Suns tank was downright historic "But Phoenix engineered a superior tank compared to its competitors—and to almost every similar effort throughout league history. If the Suns lose on Tuesday, they will have won 15 games in the first half and five in the second, meaning their second-half win total will represent just 33.3 percent of their first-half tally. That’s the second-lowest percentage among more than 1,200 different teams that played an 82-game schedule" via the ringer
At the end of January Memphis was 14 games under .500. They sat their players and tanked like crazy at the end of the season to end an astounding 38 games under .500.
Dallas went 3-16 to close the season (they briefly stopped tanking for a bit after the fine from the league).
This is the real problem with widespread tanking for the league. It turns what are supposed to be balanced schedules into completely unbalanced schedules. If you flip the order the Celtics and 76ers played their games and keep everything else the same the Celtics probably win 4 more games and the 76ers probably lose 4-5 more. That's not right.