NBA Sunday: Greg Frank picks the Raptors vs Sixers and expects Siakam and Lowry to be ready for Embiid and Simmons

1-0 Saturday, 39-40-1 overall.

Raptors (+2.5) @ Sixers (211.5)

Pick: Raptors +2.5

Never fall victim to recency bias when handicapping. No team is as good or as bad as it played the game before. This is important to remember when looking at tonight’s game at the Wells Fargo Center. The Toronto Raptors visit the Sixers and Philadelphia is a short favorite on its home floor. Last night the Sixers demolished Cleveland 141-94. A result like that is probably a combination of a good team playing like a good team and a bad team playing like a bad team. Expecting anything close to that performance from the Sixers tonight just isn’t realistic. Prior to Saturday, Philly had gone 1-5 ATS in its last six including a loss by five points in Toronto two weeks ago. Conversely, while Toronto enters having lost back-to-back games, prior to those two games, the Raptors had won seven in a row and covered in six of those games. Even despite winning by 47 on Saturday, the Sixers are still a full point worse than Toronto in margin of victory. That’s another sign that Philly is the less trustworthy team right now. Enough lines up for us to get to the window with the Raptors here.

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