Sixers vs. Nets Betting Odds, Pick, Prediction (October 22, 2021)
On Friday night, the Philadelphia 76ers welcome the rival Brooklyn Nets to the Wells Fargo Center. This game is the Sixers’ home opener.
Let’s get into our Sixers vs. Nets betting pick with player prop predictions, odds, and analysis for this October 22, 2021 matchup.
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Sixers vs. Nets Betting Pick (October 22, 2021)
The Sixers and the Nets will each be working without a key puzzle piece in tonight’s matchup. The ongoing unavailability of Sixers All-Star point guard Ben Simmons continues to hum on both the local and national news cycles. The Simmons story has, to an extent, dimmed the spotlight which previously shown on Kyrie Irving’s decision to remain unvaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, a decision which compelled the Nets to tell Irving to take a walk until he changes his ways. Two star players, two absences, two nearly inexplicable paths to the absences. It’s trite, I know, but ask the average citizen what it would take him or her to walk away from millions of dollars, and the answer probably wouldn’t be “my teammates were mean to me” or “I don’t trust modern science.”
Fortunately for really everyone involved (the league, the teams, the fans), these teams are uniquely equipped to withstand the absence of a great player while still putting out a strong lineup. And if we’re being honest, if you offered the Nets an affirmative choice of losing Irving, Kevin Durant or James Harden for any game, the Nets would be crazy not to choose Irving as the one to sit. The jury is out on whether the Sixers would affirmatively choose to lose Ben Simmons as against Tobias Harris…but there’s no world where the Sixers would choose to play Simmons over Joel Embiid. So this projects to be an excellent contest, especially since the Nets are likely to do everything in their power to avoid an 0-2 start while the Sixers are going to be urged on by a home opening night crowd that is suddenly unified by a common enemy (not the Nets).
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We will probably find out pretty quickly tonight whether the Sixers’ disemboweling of the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night was a sign that the Sixers are capable of playing a high level of basketball without their wantaway failson, or whether it was simply a good team hammering a bad one. Similarly, the Nets got roughed up Tuesday night, but they were playing the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks on the road on ring night. Are the Sixers that good? Are the Nets that bad? One game is no measure.
Sixers vs. Nets Odds
Here’s the line for the Sixers and Nets at FanDuel Sportsbook:
- Spread: Sixers +3.5 (-114), Nets -3.5 (-106)
- Moneyline: Sixers +134, Nets -158
- Total: 226
Bets We Like With a Sixers Win
Sixers to Win and Under 226 Points (+320, Barstool Sportsbook)
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To be clear, we’d advise taking the Nets to win and over 226 points, but if you’re planning on taking the Sixers regardless, this is the way to go. We like this bet with a Sixers win because, Wednesday night’s Furkan Korkmaz explosion notwithstanding, the Sixers simply aren’t constructed to win a shootout with a team that has two elite scorers. Especially not now; last season, the Sixers were able to stick Simmons on either Durant or Harden and at least hope that Simmons would limit the damage either one could cause. Presently, the Sixers’ only elite perimeter defender is Matisse Thybulle. Unquestionably, Thybulle is capable of replicating a lot of what Simmons can do defensively. The problem, of course, is that Thybulle through two full seasons has been a 20-minute and five-point per game player. So if the Sixers have to play Thybulle 30 minutes tonight (and they might need to), scoring for both teams projects to be hampered while he’s out there. And yet, that’s probably the Sixers’ best hope of winning this game, a Thybulle defensive masterclass and a rock fight from a shooting perspective.
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Bets We Like Independent of Outcome
James Harden Over 23.5 Points (-115, BetMGM)
Statistics over a career are tricky. Teams change, players change, situations change…everything is so fluid that some statistics can be misleading. You can make the argument that James Harden’s career record against the Sixers was largely built up during a period in Sixers history when they couldn’t defend average scorers much less a scoring savant like Harden. You can also make the argument that Harden was the main scorer on most of the Rockets teams that he piled up big numbers against the Sixers with. Fine.
The fact remains that Harden has averaged 28.5 points per game against the Sixers over the course of his career. Durant is ball-dominant, sure, but Harden is going to get his — especially, as noted above, in the absence of Simmons.
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Joel Embiid Over 10.5 Rebounds
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Yeah, yeah, we know, we said Embiid was going to do this against the Pelicans, and instead Embiid had six rebounds while Andre Drummond, his backup, recorded 17 boards. A combination of some in-game knee trouble for Embiid and the utter futility of the Pelicans combined to limit Embiid’s minutes and thereby his productivity. Plus, Sixers/Pelicans wasn’t exactly a featured matchup. Sixers coach Doc Rivers understandably didn’t push the issue with Embiid in Game 1 with the Sixers firmly in control.
All of those sorts of mitigating factors project to be out the window tonight. This is a nationally televised game against an elite opponent, and if the Sixers stand any chance to win, they need Embiid to have a big game and they have to defend. A big part of that defensive effort is Embiid restricting second-chance opportunities by rebounding Net misses. Embiid doesn’t normally have two bad games in a row in any discipline; his rebounding average should go up tonight.
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Tyrese Maxey Over 13.5 Points
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Just like every action has an equal and opposite reaction, every personnel move makes somebody happy. The Sixers may be distraught by the inability of Simmons to play basketball given his current psychological state, and the team’s fans may be some combination of frustrated and angry about it, but you know who’s probably fine with it? Tyrese Maxey, who stands to pick up a lot more minutes and a lot more touches the longer Simmons is out. Maxey broke out for 20 points on Wednesday night. He’s not going to average 20 per game, but as long as Simmons is out, Maxey will have plenty of chances to score in double figures.
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Sixers vs. Nets Prediction
This pick was foreshadowed early in this piece: The Nets aren’t going 0-2 against a Sixers team that doesn’t have Simmons defending either Durant or Harden. The Sixers probably won’t get blown out — neither Embiid nor the home crowd will allow that — but the Nets have more talent than the Sixers, and even in this early stage of the season, the Nets “need” this game more.
Pick: Nets moneyline and the over (+222 at DraftKings SportsBook).
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