Anyone who religiously follows the NBA regular season knows blowouts are a frequent occurrence. Lopsided scores can damper players' chances of hitting their props if they're subbed out early.
Though that's happened to us a few times in the early part of the season, don't let it dictate your thought process. Oftentimes, the favorites are on the disadvantaged side, like the Nuggets and Bucks were Wednesday night.
We still went 2-2 last night to move our season record to 14-12. Here are Thursday's best bets.
Raptors @ Sixers (-9)
No one's more familiar with the Raptors and their personnel than Sixers coach Nick Nurse, who was Toronto's bench boss for the past five seasons.
That gives the Sixers a massive scouting advantage. When these teams played a few days ago in Toronto, Philadelphia recovered from a halftime deficit to pummel the Raptors in the third quarter and win by seven.
This game will follow a different script. The Raptors played at home Wednesday night and had to travel to Philadelphia following the game. Teams on the second leg of a back-to-back are 8-12 against the spread this season. The Raptors picked up an impressively dominant win over the Bucks last night, so it's the perfect letdown spot for Toronto.
Philadelphia is also the significantly better team, and the Raptors match up poorly with no viable option to guard Joel Embiid. He had 34 against Toronto last week.
The Sixers haven't played since Sunday. Teams coming off two or three days of rest are 12-6 against the spread this season.
Picks: Sixers -9 (-110, playable to -130), Sixers 1H -4.5 (-115, -130)
Dennis Schroder over 20.5 points + assists
Schroder, who joined the Raptors in free agency after Nurse left, is a key contributor to the team.
Though he may not be the primary option with Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes in the mix, he's capable of offensive explosions any night and is averaging 16.2 points through five games.
The Sixers will be keyed in on him after he made four 3-pointers against them last week, but he can still score in various ways. He's averaging 9.2 assists per game, showing he's just as good of a distributor as he is a scorer. Schroder has at least 20 combined points and assists in four of the Raptors' five games.
The guard is coming off a 24-point performance Wednesday night while attempting only 13 shots. He only played 29 minutes in the blowout win so he should have fresh legs against the Sixers.
Odds: -125 (playable to -140)
Kevin Durant under 7.5 rebounds
Durant's role as a scorer and playmaker has been elevated without Devin Booker and Bradley Beal - the former has missed the past three games and the latter has yet to play this season.
Because Durant has shouldered increased responsibilities with a questionable supporting cast, he hasn't rebounded the ball as consistently as he typically does.
Despite his skinny frame, Durant is one of the best rebounding forwards in the league. However, over the past three games, he's averaging 5.6 boards per game.
Beal is out against the Spurs again tonight, while Booker is questionable. It may be worth waiting on this line to see if Booker plays, but this is a sound bet if he doesn't.
Odds: -130 (playable to -140)
Sam Oshtry is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @soshtry for more betting coverage.
