Posted at 1:00 PM EST. Odds subject to change.

Pinnacle +11 -109 BET365 +11 -110 Sportsinteraction +11½ -115 888Sport +11½ -118

Charlotte -9 over Philadelphia

Best Odds: -109 at Pinnacle 

7:00 PM EST. Here we go with the Hornets again, but the market is off with this one. Apparently others agree - this opened +12 at some shops.

Just two nights ago the 76ers were 11-point underdogs at Boston, and now they're 23 points of line value in the opposite direction? This cannot be. Of course some of that has to do with home court advantage, but the 76ers just aren't good enough to deserve this sort of spread. They're healthier than they've been, although they'll still miss De'Anthony Melton. And of course, they're still without Joel Embiid. This version of the 76ers, the one without last season’s MVP, is very average, evidenced by their 5-13 ATS record since January 20th (which was, coincidentally, an 8 point win over a far worse version of the current Hornets, before their latest trade). In recent games, Philly has been romped by the elites (Boston, Milwaukee, New York, Miami), just like the Hornets have been. The reality is, they're more similar than their opponent than they are different right now, and you could make a case that Charlotte has been better.

Milwaukee is in smash-mode right now so we won't take the Hornets' recent two losses that seriously, but in general they've been a significantly better defense (ranked 4th overall in their last 8 games; Philly is 24th in the same span). I realize Charlotte is on a back to back, but they couldn't hit a shot last night. Positive regression is almost certain, and in what oddsmakers predict to be a low-scoring game, the pooch has inherent value anyway. At this number, we simply can't avoid this wager.

Farley

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