Sixers vs. Heat: A playoff preview?

Barring a surge by the Miami Heat or a tank by the Atlanta Hawks, the 76ers will play Miami in the opening round of the NBA Playoffs.

If the season ended Friday, the sixth-seeded Sixers would face the third-seeded Heat in a first-round series more attractive than any Sixers series in recent memory. All of this makes Friday night's game against the Heat, in Miami, a little more interesting than just another regular-season NBA game.

On Thursday, the Sixers practiced at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine before flying to Miami.

"We definitely, among the team, we talk about playoff opponents and who are the teams we can possibly play," said Sixers forward Thaddeus Young. "It's definitely a game that we need and are going to go in there to get."

Calling himself superstitious, Sixers coach Doug Collins danced around the question of whether additional meaning would be attached to Friday's game because of the potential playoff matchup.

Collins said he's "stayed away" from talking playoff matchups because the Sixers haven't officially clinched a playoff berth. With 11 games remaining, the Sixers, 37-34, are 81/2 games from dropping out of the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot.

"I talked to our guys just about this game, and I said: 'We're coming off of a really good win,' " explained Collins, whose team defeated the Atlanta Hawks, 105-100, on Wednesday night. "We get a chance to go down there and see where we are with this group of guys. I think our guys feel confident playing against them."

The Sixers haven't played the Heat since losing, 99-90, at AmericanAirlines Arena on Nov. 26, the final loss of the team's disastrous 3-13 start. The Sixers also lost to the Heat on the opening night of the season, 97-87.

"We're much better now, just by going into all of the games we've played and getting together and getting our team camaraderie going," Young said. "We're playing with a high intensity."

Collins said Sixers swingman Andre Iguodala would guard Miami star LeBron James, while the team would throw "multiple guys" at the team's other two stars, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Despite not wanting to talk about the playoffs, Collins couldn't help but leak a little bit of mental warfare entering Friday night's game.

"We're not going to have the home-court advantage if we do get in, so we're going to have to go and win a game on the road against a team like [Miami]," Collins said. "I've always felt anytime you win a game on the road in a building, the next time you go back in there, there's a comfort. You don't want to go into a building where you've lost the last 11 in a row - you start thinking negative thoughts."