76ers at Bucks NBA Odds and Betting Prediction in Week 1

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Damian Lillard will make his Milwaukee debut on Thursday night as the NBA title-favored Bucks host reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid – but not James Harden – and the Philadelphia 76ers in the opener for both with the Bucks as solid favorites on the NBA odds. 2023 NBA Expert Analysis Philadelphia vs. Milwaukee | MyBookie Sportsbook | Regular Season: October 24, 2023, to April 14, 2024

How to Bet Philadelphia 76ers at Milwaukee Bucks NBA Odds & TV Info

When: Thursday, 7:30 PM ET
Where: Fiserv Forum
TV: TNT
Stream: TNT app
Radio: Tunein.com
NBA Odds: Bucks -5.5 (total 225)

Last Season

The Bucks and 76ers split four meetings last season. The final meeting was April 2 in Milwaukee and The Bucks won 117-104. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 33 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. Brook Lopez scored 21 points, Khris Middleton had 19 and Jrue Holiday and Bobby Portis each added 18 as the Bucks never trailed. Holiday is now with Boston. Tyrese Maxey had 29 points to lead the 76ers. Joel Embiid had 28. The Bucks lead the all-time series 118-105.

Why Bet on Philadelphia?

James Harden did return to the team today from a personal absence but will not play Thursday and clearly is trying to force a trade to the LA Clippers. He hadn’t practiced with the team since Oct. 15. New Coach Nick Nurse said Wednesday that Harden won’t travel with the Sixers for their season-opening two-game road trip. Their home opener is Sunday night vs. the Trail Blazers at Wells Fargo Center. Harden has been seeking a trade since picking up his $35.6 million player option for the 2023-24 season.

“He’s been gone for 10 days, so we are in ramp-up phase again,” Nurse said. “Like we would normally do, he will stay here and get on-court work with our staff and with our players from the Blue Coats and our two-way guys. … Try to get him ramped up as soon as we can.”

Nurse, the former Raptors coach, replaces the fired Doc Rivers. Philly finished at 54-28 last year, the third-best record in the NBA and the team’s best since 2000-01. The Sixers had a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals but lost in seven to Boston so Rivers was dumped.

Joel Embiid led the NBA in scoring for a second straight year, becoming the first Sixers player to do that in back-to-back seasons since Allen Iverson. Embiid won the MVP, the first Philly player to do so since Iverson. Embiid became the first player since the NBA-ABA merger to average at least 33 points and 10 rebounds per game. The Sixers were one of three teams in the league to have three players average at least 20 points in Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Harden.

Philly was 40-3 last year when leading after the third quarter, the second-best such record in the NBA. The team’s three wins when trailing by at least 20 points were tied for the most. The Sixers finished third in offensive rating and eighth in defensive rating, one of three teams in the Top 8 of both.

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Why Bet on Milwaukee?

The Bucks strengthened their pursuit of a championship this offseason by acquiring future Hall of Famer Damian Lillard from Portland to pair with former two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo as he seeks to lead Milwaukee to its second title since 2021. The Lillard trade came after a summer in which the Bucks re-signed Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez to new contracts, helping the Bucks solidify their future as contenders, as well as securing a hefty luxury tax bill for the Bucks’ ownership group.

The acquisition of Lillard came after Antetokounmpo said publicly over the summer that he wanted to see how committed the Bucks are toward winning another championship before deciding whether to sign a long-term deal to stay in Milwaukee.

Apparently, the trade was enough for Giannis as this week, he signed a three-year, $186 million contract extension. That timeline matches up well with Lillard. If he were to accept his $63.2 million player option for the 2026-27 season, the Bucks could have their superstar pairing locked up for the next four seasons.

“I knew in my heart that I wanted to stay,” Antetokounmpo said. “I don’t want people when we lose a game to come back and say, ‘Oh, Giannis is being irritated, he doesn’t like what’s going on, this, that, he’s going to leave, blah, blah, blah.’ No. The conversation right now is going to be straight basketball.”

Lillard averaged a career-high 32.2 ppg last year and Giannis 31.1 ppg. They are now just the second pair of teammates in NBA history to have both averaged 30 ppg in the previous season. Neither Antetokounmpo nor Lillard have ever played with another star that garners as much attention as each of them command. So far the transition seems to be going smoothly. In the preseason, defenses sent traps and double-teams at Lillard, which has given Antetokounmpo more space to attack the paint while opening up shots beyond the arc. Still, Antetokounmpo has expressed a willingness to defer to Lillard to help ease his transition with his new team.

It will be the regular-season head coaching debut of Adrian Griffin, who replaced the fired Mike Budenholzer. Griffin brings 15 seasons of NBA coaching experience to the Bucks, most recently spending the last five seasons as an assistant coach with the Toronto Raptors.

In Griffin’s time as an assistant coach, the Raptors finished in the league’s top 10 of both defensive rating and fewest points allowed per game in four of his five seasons, including in 2019-20 when they allowed a league-low 106.5 points per game. He was part of the development of a young core of players that included the league’s Most Improved Player, the NBA Rookie of the Year and four players who made six All-Star appearances.

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76ers vs Bucks Expert Prediction

Bucks 115, 76ers 112

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