It’s about Furkan time!
Forget “Dame Time.” Saturday night saw the unlikely appearance of a new late-game clutch-shooting legend in the city of Portland. Sure, the closing seconds of the Sixers-Blazers game saw Damian Lillard work his magic, and make a great assist to Anfernee Simons for a corner three-pointer. But Simons’ thunder was quickly stolen by Philly’s third-year Turkish shooting guard with ice in his veins.
Yes, with 2.2 seconds left on the game clock, Furkan Korkmaz hit a game-winning three-pointer to send the Sixers to a 129-128 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. Afterward, Korkaz tweeted a few pics of his big shot, captioned simply, “UNDEFEATED!”
No Embiid? No Furkan problem.
The young Turk was part of a team-wide showcase of Philly’s roster depth this season. That roster effort was led by the usual big three of Al Horford, Tobias Harris, and Ben Simmons, who poured in 25, 23, and 18 points apiece – and Simmons leading the team with 11 rebounds and eight assists. A good first stop on a four-game Western Conference swing.
Game Preview – 76ers @ Suns
Mon. 11/4 at 9:00 PM
The 4-2 Phoenix Suns are a much better team than in recent seasons, with their only losses so far coming by one point to the very good Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets. Devin Booker leads the team with a 23.8-point scoring average, and the offense flows through him whenever he is on the floor – where he’s hitting three-pointers at a 47.1% clip.
In the absence of suspended center Deandre Ayton, Australian big man Aron Baynes has stepped up as starter to average a solid 15 points per game, but only 5.7 rebounds. And that, folks is where the Suns are vulnerable. Unlike Philly’s big lineup that relishes controlling the boards, the Suns aim to outrun and exhaust their opponent. So far, it’s worked pretty well, but Philly’s solid defense will be a big test.
The Pick:
Even with Embiid sitting out the second half of his two-game suspension for “snuggling” a KAT, the Sixers are fully healthy, and simply too big and too deep for the younger, smaller Suns to overcome, even with home court advantage. Hence, I am betting on Philly, who are 1.5 point favorites in this game at all of the top legal sports books.
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 Sixers minus 1.5 points. However, at PointsBet the payout is a few dollars larger at -105 juice ($105 wins $100).
If you want to go bigger:
For a bigger risk/reward 76ers betting play, I’m heading to SugarHouse for a +285 bet that the visiting Sixers will beat Phoenix, but that both teams will finish with under 222.5 total points.
Top Player Prop:
Tobias Harris stands to play a big role in the Sixers scoring tonight. Since I think Philly wins, let’s go with a PointsBet +190 prop wager that Harris scores over 20.5 points AND the Sixers claim a victory.
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