Back 76ers covering nine points as underdogs on the road vs Kings Monday

The 39-32 Philadelphia 76ers are nine point underdogs on FanDuel (-108) against the 41-29 Sacramento Kings Monday. Sacramento has been on a roll in their last ten games at 7-3 while Philadelphia are 4-6.

Even though the 76ers are still without Joel Embiid, the fact that they beat the Clippers by 14 Sunday has me confident they can outperform expectations again by covering on the road against the Kings.

The 76ers’ injury report has Embiid still out and Kyle Lowry day to day as of publish time. Lowry missed Sunday’s game due to rest, so I assume he’ll suit up in this one. The Kings are without Trey Lyles, Kevin Huerter, and Sasha Vezenkov.

As is routinely the case with the 76ers, they win more games when Tobias Harris is a reliable scoring threat. He tied Tyrese Maxey for the team lead in points against the Clippers while the duo also combined for a respectable ten assists.

The fact that they scored 121 against the Clippers defense with Buddy Hield and Kelly Oubre Jr. only contributing 21 combined points is a reassuring thing. I wouldn’t expect Cameron Payne to replicate his 23 point performance however.

What’s made the 76ers frustrating is they have enough talent they should be better than the No. 7 seed. But Harris and the rest of their role players are inconsistent, which makes picking their outcomes challenging game-to-game.

The Kings haven’t been as inconsistent as the 76ers, but the potential season ending injury to Huerter is a big loss for them. That forces the likes of Malik Monk, Davion Mitchell, and Keon Ellis into more spotlight roles.

To their credit, Ellis was outstanding against Orlando Saturday while Monk is one of the elite sixth mans in the league and has outstanding chemistry with De’Aaron Fox. The trade for Chris Duarte could also offset some of their shooting loss without Huerter.

As good as Maxey is for the 76ers, the Kings have the best players in this game in Fox and Domantas Sabonis. Harrison Barnes will need to play better than he did in January however when the Kings failed to score 100 against the 76ers.

Philadelphia have clinched some form of postseason, but they’d much rather be a playoff team than a play-in team. I think that extra motivation will bring out more consistency in players like Harris, Oubre Jr., and Hield. I expect Oubre Jr. and Hield to have good games.

Three point shooting will be the area the 76ers need to be at their best at. To the 76ers’ credit, they held the Kings to 21.1 percent from three in January on 38 attempts from deep. The 76ers made 42.9 percent of their 35 three point attempts.

I think Philly can replicate or even exceed what they did last time since they were without Oubre Jr. or Hield in that game. I also won’t be surprised if this game exceeds the 222 totals market with how fast Maxey and Fox push the pace in transition.

If there’s one area the Kings should have an upper hand in it’s rebounding, as they outboarded the 76ers by eight (Including nine more offensive rebounds) in January. But Mo Bamba has done decent at rebounding for the 76ers, so I’m less worried about that.

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