Philadelphia 76ers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves Prediction: The James Harden Era Begins For Philadelphia
Philadelphia 76ers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves Prediction: The James Harden Era Begins For Philadelphia
Tonight, James Harden plays his first-ever game in a Philadelphia 76ers' uniform as the Sixers take on the Timberwolves in Minnesota. What can we expect tonight from Philly, who is looking to improve their playoff seeding with their new All-Star guard? Handicapper Josh Gayle is fading the current NBA MVP frontrunner.
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Joel Embiid u31.5 PTS @ -118 ($118 to win $100)
Odds available at FanDuel at time of publishing
Is this fun? Of course not. The last thing I would like to do is take the under on someone as fun as Embiid, especially riding an NBA future with him as my MVP. With that being said, his numbers should decrease slightly with Harden in town and I don’t see the need for him score 32 or more that often. I personally think Embiid ends this year averaging between 27-29 and Harden increases his scoring from the low to mid 20’s now that he’s in a situation where he feels more comfortable.
If there’s one thing we know about the TWolves, it is that they don’t particularly guard centers well. So, you might think I'm nuts for taking this. Although they allow the 9th most points to big men, I heard Karl Anthony-Towns say himself during his Twitch livestreams that he goes an extra gear on defense against the elite centers in the league. I had to make sure to fact-check this and it appears true. Joel Embiid against Minnesota has only had 32 or more points once in 8 tries. In those eight games, Joel is only averaging 24.75 PPG. That number is slightly skewed from his early playing days but even last year he only scored 24 PTS vs. KAT.
This number just feels too high for me with James being there and his history vs. Minnesota. I personally have him scoring around 28. I won't hit you with a decimal because that’s not even possible and I don’t have a model, I just have my big head. I don’t believe we’ll get much help from a blowout script but I think foul trouble could be in play or a potential ejection as these two have gone at it in the past, I’ve never won an under via ejection so that could be exciting. Either way this bet has value but will in turn make you not want to watch this game.