It hasn’t been a week to remember for Doc Rivers’ Philadelphia 76ers. On Sunday, they lost to the New York Knicks, 108-97 and then got beat in Boston, 106-99. The Knicks have won two straight, first over Philly and then over Orlando on Tuesday, 102-98. Philly is sitting comfortably in the third spot in the Eastern Conference, 34-19, just four games behind Boston, and New York is in seventh at 30-26.
On Sunday when these two teams met up at Madison Square Garden, Joel Embiid had 31 and 14 rebounds, but didn’t have enough help and a poor shooting night from his team cost them the game. Julius Randle did his best to outduel Embiid with 24 points, nine boards, and seven assists.
The Sixers will try to get back into the win column and avoid an 0-3 week against the Knicks tonight. Let’s look at the odds for this one in Philly.
Knicks vs. Sixers odds, spread and total
Knicks vs. Sixers prediction and pick
In their meeting to start the week, the Sixers shot 7/25 from three and their next highest scorer other than Embiid was Tobias Harris and De’Anthony Melton, each with 14 points. Despite his 12 assists, they didn’t get enough from Harden or Tyrese Maxey who had just 12 points and no assists. The Knicks have very good perimeter defenders, but Philly’s guards need to be better if they’re going to win at home tonight.
The 76ers are fourth in three-point percentage this season, 38.4%, but in their last two losses, they’re only hitting 30% from deep. Some simple shooting regression gets them a win in those games, but New York is sixth best at defending the three-point line and only allows opponents to shoot 45.4% from the field, the third lowest of any team.
Joel Embiid is questionable with a foot injury, so obviously if he doesn’t go then New York should be favored, but I expect him to play in this one. With no Mitchell Robinson again in this one, he’ll feast inside and as long as they hit a few more shots from deep the Sixers will cruise. Yesterday, at the trade deadline, they added Jalen McDaniels and shipped out Matisse Thybulle to improve their shooting.
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