Sixers look to end two game skid tonight in Cleveland against the Cavaliers
The Philadelphia 76ers have one last road game before returning home this weekend. Tonight, they make stop in Cleveland to face the Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. This will be the third time the Sixers have faced that Cavs this year. They have lost the last two times the teams met. Both the Cavs and the Sixers enter tonight’s game on losing streaks and desperately need a bounce back game to get back on track. The Brooklyn Nets won last night, which dropped the Sixers to second place in the Eastern Conference Standings, a half game behind the Nets who are now in first.
After starting their road trip 3-0, the Sixers saw their four-game winning streak snapped by the Los Angeles Clippers last Saturday. Last game, the Sixers lost to the Denver Nuggets 104-95. No player on the Sixers scored above 15 points against the Nuggets and they were dominated on the glass. Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons combined for 20 points and five assists and did not even play in the fourth quarter against Denver. The duo will look to rekindle their previously strong performances tonight against a sub par Cavaliers team.
Without Embiid, Tobias Harris has averaged 22 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 4.3 assists. Harris is shooting the ball at 51.7% accuracy from the field while registering a respectable 40.4% from beyond the arc. The key to success tonight lies in Tobias Harris hands as well as Ben Simmons, who has lost his aggressiveness over the past two outings. Simmons dominated the month of February but has failed to keep the same type of intensity after the All-Star break.
The Cavs are on a three-game losing streak and are currently in 13th place in the Eastern Conference with a 17-30 record. They were destroyed in their last game against the Utah Jazz 114-75. Still, strong guard play from Collin Sexton and Darius Garland always make a terrible Cavs team a threat. Sexton averages 23.9 points per game and will undoubtedly need a big performance tonight for the Cavaliers if they want to pull off an upset against the Sixers.
| TEAM | SPREAD | MONEYLINE | TOTALS |
| Philadelphia 76ers | -9.5 (-110) | -490 | o210.5 |
| Cleveland Cavaliers | +9.5 (-110) | +380 | u210.5 |
I fully expect Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons to return to form against the Cavaliers tonight. The Sixers desperately need a win to stop the bleeding and keep pace with the Brooklyn Nets before returning home and getting Joel Embiid back in the lineup this weekend.
Picks: 76ers -9.5 and o210.5
Mandatory Credit: NBA.com
[…] the three weeks that Embiid has missed, the Sixers have gone 6-3 and play the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight before Joel’s return. Without Embiid, the Sixers nearly beat the Milwaukee Bucks, taking them to […]