Hawks @ Sixers Prediction: Bet Hawks to keep it close
Last night’s pair of playoff games brought mixed results.
The Brooklyn Nets blew the doors off of Milwaukee last night in the Eastern Conference Semifinal to take a 2-0 series lead heading to Milwaukee. Even without James Harden in the lineup, the Nets offense has been flowing.
What might be even more surprising is Brooklyn’s team defense. They forced the Bucks into 18 turnovers last night. I also wrote I didn’t think Khris Middleton could have a worse game than Game 1, but I was wrong. He finished with 17 points, but started off 0-for-6 and by the time he started hitting shots, the game was pretty much over. He also accounted for five of the team’s turnovers.
But tonight, we have Game 2 between the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers.
The line opened at Philly -5 but has since moved to -6. While Philly’s defense late in the game was suffocating and almost enough to complete the comeback, I don’t think they should be that big of favorites despite losing Game 1.
Despite the torn meniscus, Joel Embiid looked incredible. However, he did look more and more hobbled as the game went on. Playing through one game is one thing, but expecting him to keep up this level of play for the remainder of the series and for the next month on it is very tough.
I think Philly has a great chance to win the game tonight, but I think it’s close, so I’m taking the Hawks +6 again tonight. Atlanta has just too many scorers on the floor at any given time. I would get this number now, because there’s a chance that De’Andre Hunter plays tonight and the line lowers a bit.
I also don’t think Philly can maintain that level of defensive intensity for an entire game. Doing it in the fourth quarter was almost enough, but if Hunter is out there, there won’t be the end of game sloppiness we saw.
For our prop bet of the night, I like Bogdan Bogdanovic over 16.5 points. Bogdanovic has been able to drown out the noise and even gave Philly the shush signal after hitting a big shot late in their Game 1 win.
If Atlanta is going to be in this game, it will be because of Young and Bogdanovic continuing to be fearless and go right at Philly. You can get his over 16.5 at -115 at Pointsbet and -125 at BetMGM, 888Sport BetRivers and Unibet.
