Toronto Raptors vs Philadelphia 76ers: NBA Playoffs Pick, Prediction and Odds: Game 1

First round of Playoff action resumes Saturday night with a great and exciting matchup in the Eastern Conference between the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers. Wells Fargo Center in South Philly is the host at 6:00 p.m. live on ESPN.

After finishing 12^th in the East with a bad record last season, Toronto bounced back this season. They had a surprisingly good start of the season going with a 25-21 ATS despite being an underdog in 26 of those games. Furthermore Raptors went pretty well since late January and performed with 22-14 ATS games scoring 112.2 OPPG and allowing 108.3 DPPG with a 50% O/U score 41/41 overall.

Philly on the other side started a slow season with 13-18-1 ATS and 16-16 SU and this trend was up till the mid season. Since late December the 76ers went 35-15 SU ATS run with 112.9 OPPG and 107.8 DPPG across this timeframe. The 76ers finished this season with 38-41-3 O/U score.

Toronto Raptors vs Philadelphia 76ers Game Info 

Date/Time: Saturday April 16, 2022, 6:00 p.m. ET

TV: ESPN

Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA

Toronto Raptors vs Philadelphia 76ers Odds Analysis

The Toronto Raptors enter this round as a 4.5 points underdog. This was expected as the 76ers are playing at home and are ranked a better team at the moment.

The O/U game totals spread opened at 217.5 but it were lowered at for about a point. Toronto Raptors finished the season with a solid 111.6 OPPG in the final 12 games of the season, while Philly started surrendering 110.6 DPPG since the James Harden debut for the team.

Toronto Raptors vs Philadelphia 76ers Picks

This will be series with a lot excitement and expectations are that it will take at least 6 games to finish. We will predict all of the the games starting with the game 1 .

Feel free to check our picks at our NBA picks section for more NBA playoffs predictions.

Raptors will cover the spread +4.5 @-110 (odds via BetMGM) but will they win ?

This is series in which public will like to see how the new duo Harden\Embiid will perform in the post season. “The process” is finally ready for big things so the 76ers are looking forward of a long post season tournament.

Joel Embiid carried the team alone during the winter, with a great MVP season performing 32.5PPG, 11.6 REB and 4.2 AST and 1.5 BLK before Harden arrived. Luckily for Embiid, the help arrived and Harden made immediate impact so this makes the Sixers a serious contender in the East.

Raptors have the full squad and no injured players. Team played awesome games away from Canada, which means this will not be an easy game for the favored team of Philadelphia.

The Raptors are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games against this rival and expectations are they will continue this trend. Toronto went 3-1 SU against 76ers this season.

Based on these stats, we consider Raptors will cover the spread and this will be a tight game until the last seconds of the game.

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Raptors and 76ers will go under the total of 217.5 @-110 (odds via FanDuel)

Three of the four mutual games this season went Over the predicted totals at an average of 226.7 PPG. Only one of the games finished with a low score than predicted about a month ago when Toronto won the game 88-93 away at Philly. The Game 1 of the playoffs is exactly a same game that we expect to happen with a lot more defense and lower pace.

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James Harden over 21.5 points @ -110 (odds via Bet365) as a bonus pick for this matchup

James Harden averaged exactly 21.5 PPG since he joined the 76ers via mega trade deal that brought him here from Brooklyn. However James Harden is a real superstar and despite being in a new team, we expect him to take responsibility for the post season and we expect at least 25 points on this game..

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