Okay, so the Sixers were only beaten by seven. Now one of the worst team ever assembled has to come back with another competitive effort. While getting up for one of the top teams in the NBA had Philly playing above their head, we cannot see it happening twice in 24 hours.

They are on a 5-17 skid. Six times in their last 14, they failed by 17 or more, another by 12.

Also if a road favorite of five or more is coming off a loss as an underdog and/or road loss, they continue to be a profitable bet since the 1980s. Recent years remain profitable, though admittedly not at the almost automatic rate of previous years.

The theory being that one quality team loses to another quality squad, then will take out their frustrations on an inferior team. Our scorephone clients have won with this for more than a quarter century and when we discovered it, the winnings went back as far as our database did: to 1980.