The NBA season continues on Thursday night with four games, including a nationally televised matchup on NBA TV between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Atlanta Hawks. For our staff's best bets, both Chris Baker and Andrew O'Connor Watts are playing opposite sides of the spread on 76ers-Hawks. Find out why they like each side below.
NBA Odds & Picks
Philadelphia 76ers vs. Atlanta Hawks
Andrew O'Connor-Watts: After a slow start to the season (1-4 SU/ATS), the 76ers have started to play up to the level one might expect from an Eastern Conference powerhouse (4-2 SU/ATS).
Offseason additions P.J. Tucker, De’Anthony Melton and Montrezl Harrell have started to find roles on the team, and young up-and-comer Tyrese Maxey is ascending quickly in a breakout season.
This is the first game of a duplex series. The Sixers are coming off a 100-88 win over the Suns in which Joel Embiid had 33 points and 10 rebounds in his first game back after missing three games due to illness.
The Hawks (7-4 SU/5-6 ATS) are coming off a hard-fought home loss to the Jazz last night and are playing their fourth game in six nights, all of which have been at home. Meanwhile, the Sixers have had a light schedule. This will be their second game since last Friday.
The Sixers were 2-1 SU/ATS vs. the Hawks last season and won/covered the only game in Atlanta. I’ll take the Sixers here.
Philadelphia 76ers vs. Atlanta Hawks
Chris Baker: I am going back to the well with the Hawks here at home despite them playing on a back-to-back. This team matches up extremely well with the 76ers as they have multiple quality bigs capable of keeping Joel Embiid in check. Between John Collins, Clint Capela and Onyeka Ongonkwu, the Hawks should be able to contain Joel Embiid, who will remain the focal point of the 76ers offense with James Harden still sidelined.
Tyrese Maxey should get his on offense, but the problem with Maxey is on the other end where he is not a very good on-ball defender. The 76ers pretty much lack any perimeter guard defenders outside of De’Anthony Melton, and this is a major issue against the guard tandem of Dejounte Murray and Trae Young.
I was on the 76ers on Monday night vs the Suns, but I wasn’t particularly impressed with their performance as they shot just 38% from the field and struggled to put the Suns away despite Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton being out for large swaths of the game. The Hawks offense currently ranks fourth in Transition Rate while the 76ers are 26th in points per 100 possessions allowed in transition defense.
The final factor leading me to Atlanta here is the potential absence of P.J. Tucker. Tucker has been one of Philly's only effective defenders, and he has been one of their best shooters as he is 45.5% from 3 on the season. His absence would certainly hurt the 76ers' chances to remain efficient on both ends of the floor. I expect the Hawks to have a ton of offensive success, so I will back them at essentially a pick-em on their home floor.
