The hot-shooting Philadelphia 76ers go for a second straight victory against the Brooklyn Nets when the two teams meet Monday night in Game 2 of their best-of-seven NBA opening round playoff series.
Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET at Wells Fargo Center where the Sixers are favored by -10. The total is 214.
Philadelphia 76ers (1-0, #3 seed)
The story of Game 1 was simple. The tandem of Embiid and Harden was too much for Brooklyn.
Joel Embiid and James Harden led the 76ers to a 1-0 lead in the series vs. the Nets 😤 pic.twitter.com/EY3xXnXa4C
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 15, 2023
The Brooklyn Nets didn’t have an answer for the power duo of Embiid and Harden who combined for 49 points, nine rebounds and 16 assists.
Embiid dominated in the paint and took over in the second-half when he scored 16 points.
Joel Embiid vs Brooklyn Nets Game 1
Joel Embiid was utterly dominant in game 1, especially in the second half where he had 16 points going 7/7 from the line with a +12 & 44.6 NET, here is his complete highlight reel from today#Sixers #HereTheyCome #JoelEmbiid #NBAPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/g73OllemZm
— MRCROCKPOT (@mrcrockpot) April 15, 2023
Meanwhile Harden was on fire from downtown, hitting 7 of his 13 long distance attempts. He finished the game with a 28.6 NET rating.
James Harden!!
Oh my goodness!! 😮
Got ‘em doing the electric slide out there. 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/25L803o8Bs
— V̷a̷t̷o̷r̷ (@Vator_H_Town) April 15, 2023
Brooklyn Nets (0-1, #6 seed)
Not much went right for the Nets in the opener. Mikal Bridges led the Nets with an impressive 30-point effort. Cameron Johnson added 18, Spencer Dinwiddie contributed 14 and Seth Curry had 10. The Nets gave up 21 second-chance points to the Sixers on Saturday. That number must be lower if the Nets hope for better results. But there were too many turnovers and no defense against the three. Those two factors have been a problem for the Nets this season.
Mikael Bridges evolving right before our eyes. Love it 🔥 https://t.co/ogPQBtgmuH
— Flat Out with Komo Podcast (@Flatoutwithkomo) April 15, 2023
Brooklyn has run into the same problem that most teams do. They’re going to have a very tough time slowing down Embiid. There isn’t any single player on their roster who is capable of matching Embiid’s combination of physicality and athleticism one-on-one.
Betting Angle
Game 1 finished with 222 combined points, and there are a lot of things that tell me we could be in for another higher-scoring affair in Game 2.
Philly probably won’t drain 21 3-pointers again but if they do look out. The Nets, on the other hand, also shot the ball at an impressive clip (55.7 percent from the field, 44.8 percent from 3) despite looking disjointed on offense for most of the second half.
There are two keys for this game going OVER the total in Game 2, and both need to happen from the Nets side of things.
First off, the team needs to keep Mikal Bridges involved in the game. Bridges dominated the first half, shooting 10-for-16 in Game 1, but he took just two shots after the break with the Sixers trying to deny him any easy looks.
Final thoughts
Philadelphia won all four meetings between the teams in the regular season. The Nets didn’t show me anything in Game 1 that would lead me to think they’ll win even one game in this series.
A sweep is coming.
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