Sixers (-7.5) at Lakers (230.5), 10:30 p.m.
Pick: Sixers -7.5
Laying this many points with the Sixers on the road usually wouldn’t be something we recommend as they are just 3-6 ATS as a road favorite. However, this is more of a fade of the Lakers than anything else. It’s starting to look more and more like their road win at Oklahoma City and overtime game in Houston without LeBron James were anomalies and not a team turning the corner sans their best player. We’re not buying a win against Phoenix on Sunday as anything more than taking care of business against the worst team in the West. What’s more concerning about backing the Lakers here was their second half demise against the Timberwolves last week in a 120-105 loss. Their results without James have just been too inconsistent.
While the Sixers have been consistently bad on the road, they’ve been consistently good off a loss this season. Philadelphia is 14-3 following a loss and 11-6 ATS in those 17 games. Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler both return to the lineup for the Sixers and Embiid dropped 46 at Staples Center against the purple and gold last year. While the Lakers and Anthony Davis have been linked within the last 24 hours, look for Embiid to make a statement out West and the Sixers to win by double digits.
Bulls (+7) at Nets (220), 7:30 p.m.
Pick: Under 220
The Nets get the cellar-dwelling Bulls on Tuesday to wrap up a back-to-back after Monday’s 112-104 loss in Boston. In our handicap of that game, we mentioned their myriad of Nets’ injuries piling up. The 104-point effort was the second-lowest scoring output for Brooklyn in January. Our guess is without Spencer Dinwiddie for the foreseeable future, the Nets look to grind out some lower-scoring wins. This is the 11th back-to-back for the Nets so far and the under is 6-4 in the second leg of the previous 10. Given Brooklyn’s injuries and having played a game 24 hours earlier, this total seems high at 220. Only the Memphis Grizzlies score fewer points per game than Chicago. First to 105 wins here, which means the best value in this game is on the under.