Brooklyn Nets vs Philadelphia 76ers betting tips and predictions for Thursday’s NBA Playoffs game on TNT. Philadelphia heads into Brooklyn with a comfortable 2-0 lead as the series shifts to Barclays Center for the next 2 games. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Brooklyn Nets
Despite losing both games on the road, there are some positives to take away from those Nets performances. Mikal Bridges has once again showed they have a quality offensive player in him for years to come, while Cam Johnson is asserting himself as the number 2 option. All that is well, but they’ll need a couple of more players to step up if they want to make this a series.
The defense on Embiid has performed well, the big fella is yet to score 30 points in this series, but the question is how will this team react when that happens. I’m expecting them to speed up the tempo in Game 3, as we saw scoring 101 and 84 points just isn’t enough to beat this team. Brooklyn opens the game as 3.5 point underdogs, they’ve won just 3 of their last 10 home games vs the Sixers.
Philadelphia 76ers
Game 2 was a lot harder than Game 1 for the 76ers as their three-ball wasn’t falling as well as in the series opener. That was to be expected and the Sixers showed their toughness winning the game even without elite perimeter shooting. This time it was Tyrese Maxey who led the scoring with 33 points, while Tobias Harris and Embiid each had 20.
James Harden finished with a pedestrian 8 points and 7 assists, that can go unnoticed in a series vs Brooklyn, but if this becomes a regular thing in the next series vs the Celtics, the Sixers will be in trouble. Philly heads into Game 3 with a run of 6 straight wins over the Nets, they’ve also covered in 8 of their last 11 games on the road.
This is a do or die scenario for the Nets and I believe they respond here. The Barclays Center will be packed, if they want to avoid the sweep here it would be in their best interest to grab one of the next 2 games. I think they can catch the 76ers off guard a bit here, so let’s go with Brooklyn to cover.
Brooklyn Nets vs Philadelphia 76ers Predictions & Odds
Increasing the pace of the game is something the Nets absolutely have to do here if they want to give themselves a chance. Tiring out Joel Embiid would be a good idea, we’ve seen a number of times the big man struggling to keep up with faster teams which is understandable considering his huge frame.
Philadelphia also likes to run when on the road, they finished the regular season 23-18 on the O/U in away games, plus the last 4 of their last 5 have cashed on that bet. Head-to-head meetings have produced 221.4 points per game in the last 10 meetings, the 6 most recent games have gone 4-2 on the O/U. With the last meeting at Barclays Center finishing with 239 points, I think the projected total of 209.5 is too low here, so let’s back the points.
