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Sixers are a Whopping 10.5-Point Underdog in Cleveland
By Joe Tansey
Published:
Well nothing will get as bad last night’s Sixers collapse.
But it won’t be all peachy keen on Wednesday night in Cleveland, at least according to the oddsmakers. The Sixers are 10.5-point underdogs at BetMGM.
Joel Embiid is obviously not playing the second end of a back-to-back. Paul George is still out and Jared McCain won’t be suiting up. So it’s the VJ Maxx Show against a Cleveland team set to get Darius Garland back from injury.
If you’re looking for a positive before tipoff, well, it’s notable that the Sixers are 3-1 against the spread as an underdog. They won outright as a six-point dog on opening night in Boston and as a 6.5-point dog versus Orlando.
The Sixers are also 5-2 to the over, so if all else fails, at least they’ll try to avoid playing boring basketball against a Cavs team that is 5-2 to the under. Cleveland is also 2-5 ATS and 1-2 ATS as a favorite of six or more points.
Garland’s return will eventually make Cleveland’s offense more efficicent, but in his first game back, I’d look to Donovan Mitchell and the big duo of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen as the key players to stop.
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Mobley, who averages 19.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game, has his props set at Over/Under 20.5 points and O/U 9.5 rebounds. Allen’s numbers are O/U 13.5 points and O/U 8.5 rebounds.
I’d lean more toward Mobley if you’re fading the Sixers without Embiid from a player prop perspective. He’s more agile and can get either one or both of Andre Drummond and Adem Bona in foul trouble fairly quickly.
As for the Sixers, Tyrese Maxey’s point prop sits at O/U 29.5. He’s had at least 25 points in every game this season, and as we’ve noted many times already, he’s hit at least three three-pointers in every contest as well.
The rest of the offense is a question mark without Embiid. VJ Edgecombe obviously receives a boost, but the Kelly Oubre/Quentin Grimes duo needs an uptick in scoring too. However, all three players have point props from 15.5 to 17.5 and I’m hesitant to touch that with Maxey scoring at a high rate and Cleveland being one of the better defensive teams.
Looking at PA betting promos, and NJ sportsbook promos, there’s BetMGM’s NBA Odds Boost Token, and I would pair Maxey 25+ points with Mobley 15+ points and 7+ rebounds, which pays out at -120 before the boost is applied. That’s really all I would play with some of the numbers inflated and Cleveland adjusting its rotation with Garland back.
Joe Tansey writes sports betting posts for Crossing Broad and also covers the Philadelphia Union for his Substack site, Union Soccer Blog.