76ers vs. Nets Game 1 Preview

Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers will take on Mikal Bridges and the Brooklyn Nets in the first round and Game one is already here. Philadelphia swept the Nets in the season series winning all four games of the year. The largest margin of victory was on the last game of the year where the Sixers won 134-105.

Joel Embiid is coming off of another MVP-caliber season putting up numbers that almost no one has been able to match. He will attempt to keep this dominance going into the Playoffs. Embiid’s playoff averages are 24.0 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 44 games. In last year’s Playoffs, he averaged 23.6 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 2.1 assists. If Embiid can get into a groove and stay hot, the Nets will have serious issues trying to contain him. The only player on the Nets that is anywhere near Embiid’s height is Nicolas Claxton, but The Process should have no problems getting past him.

One of the biggest problems Brooklyn is going to have playing Philadelphia is the mismatch in talent. While the Nets mostly have the height advantage, the Sixers have more talent. The matchups for each squad are highly in Philly’s favor. James Harden finished top 10 in the KIA NBA MVP Ladder, but Spencer Dinwiddie wasn’t even an All-Star. Tobias Harris was a borderline All-Star, while Cam Johnson didn’t start playing competitively until the second half of the season. Joel Embiid is a favorite to win MVP this year, but Nicolas Claxton is barely starting for Brooklyn. The only matchups that could possibly be in the Nets’ favor would be Mikal Bridges over Tyrese Maxey, and Dorian Finney-Smith over P.J. Tucker but even those are questionable.

Philly and Brooklyn have history with each other. Philadelphia has won 8 of the 12 games in the Playoffs versus the Nets and has won two out of the three series they have played in. Most recently, the Sixers beat the Nets in the first round in 2019 in 5 games. They also have history of making major transactions, with the most recent trade being in 2021 in a blockbuster deal where Brooklyn received Ben Simmons and Philadelphia received James Harden. It is safe to safe to say that the 76ers won that trade as Harden is top ten in the KIA NBA MVP Ladder and Simmons is out of the Nets rotation.

Oddsmakers have the Sixers with a 76.69% chance of winning the series and most betting sites have Philadelphia winning with ease. It is likely that Philly will have no problems beating Brooklyn as the Sixers are simply the better team all around. The 76ers had the third-best record in the NBA, while the Nets had the tenth-best. Joel Embiid and James Harden are clearly better than every player on the Brooklyn roster and the Sixers have a good chance of winning the series in 5 or 6 games.

You can watch this game on ESPN, ESPN 2, and NBC Sports Philadelphia. Live updates and reactions will be on the Philly Sports Reports Twitter page.