With just over a week to go, the Philadelphia 76ers have a hammerlock on the Eastern Conference. The team is 2.5 games up on rival Brooklyn for first place with six games to go.
Philly has four home games remaining and will only face two playoff contenders twice on the road. There are two back-to-backs, including a Thursday in Miami followed by a Friday night at home against Orlando.
The Sixers need a combination of four wins or losses by Brooklyn or Milwaukee to clinch the top seed in the East. Despite this, the Nets remain favorites to win the Eastern Conference title in the playoffs.
Philadelphia Sixers Playoff Odds
Philly is the second or third choice on the boards, available from +325 (BetMGM) to +440 (DraftKings). We’ll go over the potential opponents the Sixers could face in each round, along with Sixers playoff odds and probabilities to advance, according to playoffstatus.com.
76ers NBA Odds – Round 1
Should the Sixers win their way to the top seed (which seems very likely), they will benefit from the new NBA format to determine the last two playoff teams. Four teams will face off in two games to make the seventh and eighth seed. The final spot will go to the team that plays two games and wins the final of the three-game tournament.
As of now, Miami will play Charlotte for the seventh seed, with the loser facing the winner of the Indiana-Washington game. Two games played, the winner gets the Sixers.
The Sixers are listed at 86 percent to advance to the second round, best among Eastern teams. Should the current seeding hold, Charlotte would face the Sixers. The Hornets lost all three meetings with Philly and are as much as 250-1 to win the East.
NBA LIVE Betting Odds
76ers NBA Odds – Round 2
There are some really tantalizing match-ups forming for the playoffs. The best first-round match-up in the East looks to be the 4 v 5, currently pitting two up-and-coming teams in Atlanta and New York.
Despite being higher-seeded, these two teams are lower on the boards, ranging from +2500 (Atlanta on MGM) to +4200 (Knicks on FanDuel). The Sixers are a combined 5-1 against these teams.
In the season, the Knicks played the Sixers tougher than the Hawks. Philadelphia hosted Atlanta twice in April and won by a combined 66 points.
The Sixers have the best odds to make the conference finals in the league at 64 percent on that site. If they advance by playing 10 games or less in the first two rounds, they should stay healthy and be more rested than who they’ll face in the final four.
Conference Finals
The top seed of the East gives the Sixers a clearer path to the conference finals. Likely, they will face the winner of the Nets-Bucks semifinal, which should be a classic. This could be the best year of playoff series in a decade.
There have been a litany of injuries for the top three teams, resulting in imbalanced match-ups, as we saw two weeks ago in the Sixers’ losses in Milwaukee. The playoffs should see everyone healthy and elite basketball played, instead of high-priced versions of Monty Python’s Four Yorkshiremen sketch.
- The Sixers have a 41 percent to advance to the NBA Finals, better than the Bucks (21 percent) and the Nets (15 percent).
- Milwaukee offers a better challenge to Philadelphia but has not beaten the full lineup.
- Brooklyn remains the favorite but at some point, the Big 3 have to play together for a prolonged period and actually exist on the court with one player controlling the ball at once.
The books have Brooklyn winning the East at minus odds. It might help if the team actually plays together. There’s no guarantee Harden stays healthy and/or Kyrie decides to take time off for social causes (I’m very upset about his comments towards the media).
Sixers Playoff Odds – NBA Finals
The NBA futures boards significantly disagree with the odds on PlayoffStatus.com. The top three teams to win the NBA title according to the site are:
- Utah (24 percent)
- Philly (19 percent)
- Phoenix (17 percent)
Those teams are fourth, fifth, and sixth on the boards.
- Utah is no less than +650
- The Sixers are still available for +800 to +1200
- Phoenix, available for +1200 to +1600, might be the best value on the markets
We’ll revisit the NBA championship if the Sixers advance through the first two rounds. However, the prices on the Sixers have not moved, despite how well they’ve consistently played. Might be good to get in now and secure a ticket.
