The Sixers go to Toronto for a game on Easter Sunday.

While on vacation in Canada, the Sixers will play a Raptors club that is focused on the lottery odds.

This week has been amazing if you like to watch exciting, fiercely competitive basketball games. This week has been awful if you enjoy watching the Philadelphia 76ers win basketball games. The Sixers have lost their last two games by a total of four points, with the Cavaliers and Clippers both looking like close wins until the very end. The Sixers are currently 1.5 games behind the Miami Heat for seventh place in the Eastern Conference after losing three straight and five of their past six games overall.

But there might be some wonderful news soon! When Joel Embiid had meniscus surgery (sorry, procedure, or was it a check-up? ), some thought this season was over. Joel has joined the squad on their current road trip, and the team posted a hint about his impending return to action in the form of a gif depicting him munching an apple. But today won’t be the day since Embiid, Robert Covington, and De’Anthony Melton have already been eliminated. I’d bet that the return might occur during Tuesday’s home game versus the Thunder. Joel could be returning to help the Sixers win this season, but we’ve been waiting for a lot longer than three days.

If you look at things from the standpoint of Tankathon, where the Raptors presently have the sixth-best odds of snagging the first overall choice, things in Toronto aren’t quite as bright. This season, Masai Ujiri eventually, if belatedly, pressed a few reconstruction buttons by benching Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby. The injury bug has also smacked the Raptors very hard.

Jakob Poeltl (torn hand ligament), Chris Boucher (MCL tear), and Scottie Barnes (broken finger) are all gone for the season. Trade additions RJ Barrett (return to competition reconditioning) is classified as uncertain, and Immanuel Quickley (return to competition reconditioning) and Ochai Agbaji (bruised hip) are also out at this time. The Raptors are 4-14 since the All-Star break and have a net rating of minus-10.6, which is only better than Washington’s among all NBA clubs. To ensure that the tank operated well for the remainder of the season, they truly added some premium fuel.

Considering all of that, the Sixers ought to be able to win this game by a wide margin. They have, for the most part, played excellent basketball over the past several weeks, but they lack the depth to overcome strong teams. Luckily, the Raptors as they are currently are not a very good team. Toronto will lose if Philadelphia performs at the same level as it did in the previous two games. The Sixers are presently ranked as 11-point favorites on DraftKings, indicating that oddsmakers agree. Handle business against a club that has nothing left to lose (not even unders on their prop bets), and foster some optimism for Joel’s potential return the next week. If a tipping point is to occur