The 76ers didn\u2019t do themselves any favors by losing their game in San Antonio the other day, despite facing a Wemby-less Spurs side in the 2nd half of that game. If there is a silver lining for them from that game, it\u2019s the fact that Joel Embiid scored 34 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and looked a lot healthier than in previous weeks. Another tall task awaits the Sixers on Thursday as they head to Houston for a date with the red-hot Rockets, looking to sweep the regular season series. The first meeting played back in January went into OT, but the Sixers ultimately prevailed thanks to big games from Maxey, Embiid and Kelly Oubre. It\u2019s pretty much the same team this time around, but I\u2019d argue Paul George is in better form, averaging 24.4 ppg in his last 7 outings.<\/p>\n
This 7-game win streak couldn\u2019t happen at a better time for the Rockets, who are now tied with the Lakers at 50-29. However, due to losing the head-to-head regular season series, they are still in 5th place. They just have to post a better record over these remaining regular season games to guarantee themselves home court in that matchup, and with the shape that the Lakers are in right now, that seems very likely. Beating this Philly team will be difficult though, despite all the solid numbers the Rockets have posted in these last 7 games. This is one of the rare games in which they\u2019ll see just how much they miss Steven Adams. Without his physicality down low, I just don\u2019t think the Rockets will have enough to contain Embiid close to the basket.<\/p>\n
Both teams still have everything left to play for, but I\u2019d argue that the sense of urgency to win is slightly higher for Philadelphia, as they don\u2019t want to slip further down in the standings. Houston is safe in the 5th seed and even if they don\u2019t win here, I still see them winning their last 2 games. Combined with the Lakers losing 2 of their last 3, that should be enough for KD and co. to grab the 4th seed. Philadelphia has won 9 of 12 meetings and has covered in 5 of 6 at Toyota Center. I\u2019ll back Philly here.<\/p>\n
76ers vs Rockets prediction: Philadelphia 76ers +4 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number or better.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for a new sportsbook, check out bet365<\/a>, the world\u2019s #1 sportsbook. They have an amazing sign-up offer where you can INSTANTLY receive $200 in bonus bets from a $10 wager, regardless of whether that bet wins or loses! There\u2019s no catch, it\u2019s really that simple. Join Bet365 right now<\/a> \u23f0 in time to fade or follow our experts\u2019 76ers vs Rockets\u00a0predictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 76ers didn\u2019t do themselves any favors by losing their game in San Antonio the other day, despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-706660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116375338606798846","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}