The 76ers are legit. But can they win big playoff games?

The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls Wednesday night. Yes, a Bulls team without Luol Deng or Richard Hamilton, but still the team with the best record in the east and the reigning MVP Derrick Rose.

As I said in the recaps, this was another clear sign that the Sixers are legit. They are a top three/four seed in the East, they are going to win a lot of games and be a tough team to beat come the playoffs. They are balanced, have fantastic ball movement and play great defense.

But in the playoffs, will Philly be able score at the end of close games without a superstar? Conventional wisdom is you need a star who can create his own shot late in tight games (like Dirk Nowitzki did for the Mavericks last year). Can the 76ers really be considered a contender without one?

In an interesting, wide-ranging interview with Zach Lowe of Sports Illustrated, Sixers GM Rod Thorn says we are all going to find out about that together.

So Rod, can the Sixers win regularly in the payoffs, can they score enough late in the game without a superstar to give the ball and get out of the way?

That’s the $64,000 question: Can you do that night in and night out in close games? It’s an advantage to have someone who can get a good shot, or get fouled late in the ball game. Even the bad teams, if the games are close late, on the defensive end of the court, they get much harder and much better. And it’s harder to just run plays. Patterns you’ve run all night — it’s harder to do late. So ultra-talent certainly helps late. But with us and with Denver, you don’t know where it’s coming from.

If you’re playing the Lakers, you know what they’re going to do down the court every time late in the game.

So, are the Sixers contenders right now?

That’s a leap for us right now. We just made the playoffs as the seventh-place team. We’re definitely better this year when we have all of our pieces healthy. Spencer [Hawes] was an incredible plus for us in the first eight games. It put us on another level. We haven’t had him for a while. I think we can compete with anybody, but we have to prove we can play at that level, with those really, really elite teams.

I think the Sixers are good. Probably the third best team in the East, but the gap up to one and two is huge. Wednesday night was a good win for the 76ers, but it was an early season win with the Bulls missing some key pieces. I like Jrue Holiday, I love Lou Williams off the bench, I love how Spencer Hawes has stepped up. I still don’t think the Sixers can beat the Bulls or Heat over a seven game series.

But both the Sixers and Nuggets are good teams without a classic superstar this season, and come the playoffs they are going to be interesting to watch. Unless you are the Bulls, Heat and Thunder, in which case they are teams to avoid.