Back in the spring while covering the 76ers for NJ.com, I had a long discussion with J.J. Redick at the Sixers practice facility in Camden, N.J. about what he was telling his younger teammates as their first-round series with Miami was about to begin.
In a nutshell, his answer was this: The last game does not matter anymore. Won by 30, went to overtime, lost at the buzzer, won at the buzzer, etc … only one thing matters most: Get four wins, and move on to the next round.
This is relevant tonight because Redick and his Philadelphia 76ers are coming off a relatively easy victory against the Atlanta Hawks last night, playing the Raptors in Toronto one night after the Milwaukee Bucks knocked off the purple dinosaurs in a clash of the unbeatens to leave themselves as the only remaining unbeaten team in the NBA.
Back-to-backs are particularly intriguing to gamblers because players tend to be tired, and defenses are not as sharp as they would be for a team coming off a day or two of rest. Toronto is favored by 6, and the over/under has moved to 227 1/2 after opening four points lower.
Kawhi Leonard is expected to play after sitting out against the Bucks (the second game in which he has been rested), and he is a legit MVP contender at this early point of the NBA season with current odds of 6-1, averaging 26.6 points per game.
Robert Covington will likely get the defensive assignment, which could be a litmus test of whether the Sixers want to kick around the idea of acquiring Jimmy Butler before someone else scoops him up. From what I am being told, the Sixers kicked around the idea at the outset of training camp — just like a couple dozen other NBA teams did.
Covington was never able to cover LeBron James all that effectively, which puts him in good company (pretty much every elite defender out there).
The matchup pits an overachieving (Raptors) home team against an underachieving Sixers team, which is being patient with Dario Saric as he struggles at the start of the season for the third year in a row. Also, the Markelle Fultz as starter experiment continues, although the body of evidence thus far has shown that he and Ben Simmons cannot play all that well together.
One player for Sixers fans to watch closely is backup power forward Mike Muscala, who was compared to Ersan Ilyasova last night by coach Brett Brown in his postgame news conference.
If Muscala can become as dependable as Ilyasova was, it’ll make a huge difference as they try to find replacements for their two offseason defections (Marco Belinelli was the other).
For Raptors fans, it’ll be interesting to see if there can be an encore performance from Pascal Siakam, who was their best all-around player against the Bucks with 22 points, eight rebounds and four steals (Kyle Lowry gets the Fultz Award for going 0-for-9 from 3-point range).
Including last season, Toronto is 9-7 ATS on the second night-of back-to-backs, and Philadelphia is 6-9-1. (The New Orleans Pelicans are the NBA’s best in this realm, going 11-6, while Washington and San Antonio are tied for first at 5-10).
Here are some of the prop wagers on the board tonight:
Good luck tonight.
MORE ON THE RAPTORS IN OCT. 29 PODCAST WITH RAPTORS BEAT WRITER MIKE GANTER OF THE TORONTO SUN
