Betting the Sixers bounce back at home, Wednesday: Philly -6

We had the Nets to cover over the Bucks Tuesday, following the surprising loss suffered in game 4 (after Kyrie went down with an ankle sprain). Much of the basis for that pick owed to the historical observation that the best teams tend to right-foot themselves after dropping a game they were expected to win.

Wednesday, the 76ers will host the Hawks as 7-point favorites, after a narrow loss in Atlanta Monday. The same rationale that compelled our play on the Nets drives us to back the Sixers cover.

Teams that earn one of the top two post-season seeds have proven great bets coming off a loss as the favorite...

Backing top playoff teams off surprise losses has delivered a 17% long-term return on investment and is a perfect 5-0 ATS so far this year.

Perhaps losses sustained by the best teams in the NBA post-season merely represent mental lapses...which are, by their very definition, temporary. Intuitively, it makes sense that more fruitful efforts follow flat outs.

Specifically, Joel Embiid missed every single shot he attempted the second half of Monday's action, to finish with 17 points, on 4-20 aggregate shooting effort. We now know that Embiid's bum knee hampered his offensive contribution, and "The Process" is listed as questionable Wednesday. Most pundits expect the franchise big man to go, given what is at stake. If the oft-cited adage that "great players don't have two back-to-back bad games" holds true, expect even a less-than-100% Joel Embiid to be hell on wheels to the Atlanta Hawks. We are laying the chalk with the home favorites.

Happy betting!!