This column makes 76ers betting easy. We shop the top US online sports books to find you the best lines, biggest payouts and most generous bonuses for Sixers games.
Fight!
The Sixers won their showdown of unbeaten teams, taking down the Timberwolves 117-95. But who the hell even remembers? The only thing anybody cares about is the third quarter scrap between Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns that cost both players two game suspensions. Maybe “scrap” is too generous a word.
I think legendary Phil-Lambeer-puncher, Charles Barkley correctly termed the encounter as a “snuggle party,” compared to fights in his day. Still, Embiid left the court shadowboxing like Rocky, and kept up the assault with a social media attack throughout the night – tweeting “Great team win!!! I was raised around lions and a cat pulled on me tonight lmao.. Got his mama giving middle fingers left and right. That’s some SERIOUS REAL ESTATE #FightNight #IAintNoBitch”
All well and good, but now the Sixers are stuck facing the Trail Blazers in Portland without their best player. Thankfully, that loss didn’t seem to faze the rest of his squad in closing out Minnesota. Al Horford stepped in as solo center, and finished with 12 points, 16 rebounds, and a ridiculous +26. Ben Simmons had 16 points and a +19, while Tobias Harris had 18 points and a +18. None of them played more than 34 minutes. That’s pretty damn good. But can they keep it going on the first stop of their four-game Western Conference road trip?
Game Preview – 76ers @ Trail Blazers
Sat. 11/2 at 10:00 PM
After striking a long-range dagger into the hearts of the Oklahoma Thunder to boot them from last year’s playoffs, Damian Lillard made three fourth quarter three-pointers in 86 seconds to swing momentum to Portland for a 102-99 road road victory.
It was an ugly game, but Dame is locked in, and that could be bad news for Philly. I say “could be,” because center Hassan Whiteside is questionable for the game with a sore knee, and his size will be crucial to stifling the big Sixers starters – and backups Skal Labissiere and Mario Hezonja ain’t gonna cut it. That still leaves Lillard and CJ McCollum, who are averaging 29.2 and 23 points per game apiece.
The Pick:
With Embiid out, betting houses are making the Blazers slight 1.5 point favorites. But with Whiteside iffy to play, and limited if he does, I think Philly has a much better shot at overpowering Portland’s stellar one-two punch guards than the close odds suggest. That’s why I’m going with the Sixers as 1.5 point underdogs in this game.
Where to bet this:
PointsBet continues to offer the best value on all 76ers betting so far this season. Like all the other books, they have the line set at Portland – 1.5 points. However, the PB payout is a few dollars larger at -105 juice ($105 wins $100).
If you want to go bigger:
For a bigger risk/reward play, I’m heading to the recently-rebranded SugarHouse for a +260 bet that the visiting Sixers will win by more than 1.5 points, but that both teams will finish with under 219.5 total points.
Bonus Alert
By betting the game at PointsBet, you can also still take advantage of ‘make it rain’. Incredibly, this promo adds $3 per three pointer from whichever team you take with a minimum $100 pre-game spread bet.. And, it’s only available on 76ers games. !
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