Free Picks: Los Angeles Clippers vs. Philadelphia 76ers

The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center in their last outing on Thursday night, and they’ll stay right there to take on the Lakers’ crosstown rivals—the Los Angeles Clippers—on Saturday night. Both the Sixers and the Clippers come into this matchup riding four-game winning streaks, but only one of those streaks can make it to five.

While the Clippers have finally been finding a little bit of team chemistry and mojo, the Sixers have been cruising along without their top player, Joel Embiid, for the past seven games, winning six during that stretch. That one loss also came in overtime, and you have to go all the way back to February 21st, 15 games ago, for Philly’s last regulation loss.

Some would say that means they’re right on track, but not me. Philadelphia, especially shorthanded as they are, is well overdue for a regulation loss, and the Clippers seem primed to be the team to bring them crashing back down to earth. Los Angeles has struggled with consistency recently, failing to win two straight games for over a month before they embarked on their current four-game parade.

Both of these teams picked up veteran guards at the trade deadline, the Sixers snapped up George Hill and the Clippers snared Rajon Rondo. Considering this game is just two days after those deals were made, it would be surprising to see either out on the court, but even if they do get out there, it’s unlikely that either would see significant time in their debuts.

Los Angeles didn’t even need Kawhi Leonard to take care of business against the Spurs on Thursday, but Leonard will mostly likely be back for this one, and considering George and Leonard both hold a 3-1 head-to-head record against Sixers star Ben Simmons in regular season games, the Clips have a good shot here

The Clippers have been great as the home favorite recently, posting a 6-1 record against the spread in their last seven such games. The Sixers, meanwhile, have had a rough go as the road dog this year, posting a 2-4 ATS mark in those spots.

This should be a no-brainer with Embiid out, so we’re not going to overthink it and we’re going to go with the Clippers at a -4.5 NBA point spread on -127  NBA odds as the first of our top picks on this inter-conference clash.

Another NBA pick we like for this tilt is the over on the game’s 222.5 total points prop at decent -132 NBA odds. The Clippers have played 19 games against opponents from the Eastern Conference this season, and 14 of those contests has eclipsed the betting point total. 12 of 21 home games for the Clippers have also gone over the total.

Philadelphia, for their part, has had a few barnburners in this situation as well, with the over going 4-2 this season when they come into a game as the road dog. The Sixers have also had their last three straight games go under, so just like they’re due for a loss, they’re also due to light up the scoreboards—or allow their opponents to.

Our third and final NBA pick for this matchup is on the over for George’s 22.5 points prop at -125 NBA odds. PG has really struggled recently, failing to shoot 50 percent from the field in any of his past three games. We’d expect him to bounce back nicely here against an Eastern Conference opponent considering he’s been putting up 24.5 against East Coast teams, compared to 21.9 against the West.

• Los Angeles is 6-1 ATS in their last 7 as the home favorite
• Philadelphia is 2-4 ATS as a road dog this season
• Los Angeles is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 at Staples Center
• The over is 14-5 when Los Angeles plays an Eastern Conference team