Short-Handed Nets Visit Philly in East Showdown

First place in the Eastern Conference standings is on the line tonight when the 76ers (37-17 SU, 30-21-3 ATS) host the Nets (37-17, 26-28). However, Brooklyn is missing several of its top stars and will be playing for the second straight day. Oddsmakers opened Philly as a 5.5-point favorite.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

Not many sportsbooks had opened a betting line by Wednesday morning out of concern that Kevin Durant might sit out the second game of Brooklyn’s back-to-back. Philly was a 7.5-point home favorite when it beat the Nets 124-108 in early February, when Durant and Kyrie Irving were both out of the lineup.

Brooklyn News & Notes

Granted, it was against the Timberwolves, but the Nets didn’t look like a team that was missing two of its top scorers and several key role players when they played yesterday afternoon in Minnesota. Led by 31 points from Durant, who made 11 of his 15 shots in his third game back after missing 23 with a hamstring strain, Brooklyn cruised to a 127-97 rout of the Timberwolves in a game that was an even bigger blowout than the final score indicated.

Playing without Irving (out for personal reasons), James Harden (hamstring), LaMarcus Aldridge (illness) and Tyler Johnson (right knee soreness), the Nets opened the second quarter with a 16-1 run and ballooned their lead to 45 points in the fourth quarter before taking their foot off the gas. Joe Harris supplied 23 points and Landry Shamet added 19 off the bench for Brooklyn, which had covered just two of its previous nine games going into the contest.

Unfortunately, the Nets’ depth took yet another hit Tuesday as Chris Chiozza, who had five assists in 14 minutes as Brooklyn’s starting point guard, left the game in the second quarter with a thumb injury. Shamet played the point in the second half and would likely be Brooklyn’s main ball handler if neither Irving nor Chiozza returns to the lineup against Philadelphia.

Philadelphia News & Notes

Philadelphia returns home from a four-game road trip with a 3-1 SU record, winning the latter two games by a combined total of 42 points. That includes a 113-95 romp Monday in Dallas, when Joel Embiid scorched the Mavs for 36 points in just 26 minutes. Furkan Korkmaz was nearly as efficient, scoring 20 points in 18 minutes off the bench to help Philly improve to 13-6-1 ATS in its last 20 games.

After sitting out Philadelphia’s visit to Oklahoma City on Saturday, veterans Tobias Harris and Danny Green both returned to the lineup against the Mavericks and showed little sign of injury that might keep them out against the Nets. The duo led the team in minutes with 27 and 25, respectively, in a game that saw nine different Sixers record at least 18 minutes of playing time.

Philadelphia’s seventh-ranked defense has taken things to a new level lately, with Monday marking the third time in four games that the 76ers held an opponent under 100 points. Not only has Philly gone UNDER the total in seven of its last eight games, each of those UNDERs has come with at least six points to spare.

Betting Pick: 76ers -5.5

Expect the healthier and more rested Sixers to go all out to gain an edge in the race for home-court advantage in the playoffs.