The No. 6 Brooklyn Nets head to Philadelphia to start their first round matchup against the No. 3-seed 76ers and the likely MVP winner Joel Embiid to start the NBA postseason.
The Nets have steadied the ship after trading Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in the middle of the season behind the breakout performances of Mikal Bridges, who is averaging over 26 points per game since joining the team in the middle of February.
While it’s a nice story, the team is still significant underdogs against the Sixers, who have overwhelming power with Embiid at center and complimentary talent around him in James Harden, Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris.
The Sixers will likely runaway with this series, but what about the Game 1 spread? Can the Nets continue their regular season trend of covering as big underdogs?
Let’s dive into the early afternoon matchup:
Nets vs. Sixers odds, spread and total
Nets vs. Sixers prediction and pick
Since trading away Durant and Irving, the Nets are 5-0 against the spread when catching more than four points, including two outright wins in Boston and Denver. The Nets have struggled as considerable favorites against lesser competition, but the team has been able to stick to better teams when expected to lose by a few possessions.
Brooklyn doesn’t have the size to contain Embiid, Nic Claxton is an emerging Defensive Player of the Year candidate in years to come, but he is simply too small right now to match the likely MVP winner and the Nets have zero depth behind him if he gets into foul trouble.
The Nets may send doubles at Embiid and force anybody else to beat them, and the team has the length along the perimeter to recover nicely and not allow too many driving lanes, so this may be the first look Jacque Vaughn gives the big man.
Further, the Nets have upped their 3-point shooting since making wholesale changes at the deadline, hoping to win the variance battle on offense. The team is sixth in 3-point attempts per game since bringing in the likes of Bridges, Cam Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie.
Brooklyn has shown the ability to stay close to team’s for the game but unable to pull out games late as the offense goes stagnant late as the team still lacks a closer. While Bridges has emerged as a go-to scorer throughout the game, when the game tightens I expect Embiid and the Sixers to win out, but not enough to blow out the Nets in Game 1.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.