Will Embid light it up?

When De'Andre Hunter went down with a knee injury, that weakened the Atlanta Hawks from a defensive standpoint. And the Philadelphia 76ers have taken advantage of it, with two straight victories to take a lead in their NBA Eastern Conference playoff series.

Now BetOnline customers will have to see if the Hawks can put together enough defense to slow down Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and the rest of the Sixers in Game 4, which is scheduled to get underway at 7:35 PM ET at the State Farm Arena.

Here are the NBA playoff odds on this game:

Philadelphia 76ers -3 (-105)
Atlanta Hawks +3 (-115)

Over 225.5 points -113
Under 225.5 points -107

The Sixers have shot 55% in the series, and Atlanta has just not figured out a way to keep Joel Embiid off the scoreboard. We don't know if they are going to come up with a way to keep him off the free throw line. Embiid has made 38 of 47 chances from the charity stripe. And when you consider that he's had 60 field goal attempts, that tells you that Atlanta's strategy has been to foul him and hope for the best. In turn, that means they really don't know how to contain him at all.

Clint Capela has proven to be a very capable center, from the perspective of rebounding and shot-blocking. And he has been on the floor for only 88 minutes, which gives you an idea about how much difficulty Embiid can be.

This leads us to one of the props we examine at BetOnline, which concerns the total points from Embiid. Here it is:

Over 30.5 points -114
Under 30.5 points -114

Embiid has averaged fewer points than that in the regular season. But you have to take into account the lack of answers on the part of the Hawks. He has averaged 35.3 points, and there would be no reason not to continue feeding him. The only thing that would keep him down is if he starts to tank at the line. He is shooting 80.9%, but even if he had shot only 70%, he'd be over 33 points per game.

This effort with the Sixers have become a lot different with Embiid, which is why we are always concerned about their viability when he is not in the lineup. And it's why his presence would give them a genuine opportunity to knock off the Brooklyn Nets. He provides real muscle; he is a rock in the middle, not only with the ability to score in bundles on the inside but also push the opposing offense a little more to the outside.

Embiid is a principal reason why the 76ers were second in the NBA in free throw ratio; that is, number of free throws expressed as a percentage of field goal attempts. They stood at 22.5% in the regular season, and in this playoff series it's been 38.7%. And we don't necessarily feel as if there is going to be a "regression to the mean" because the circumstances (and the matchups) dictate something otherwise.

As far as rebounds and assists are concerned, we're not so certain. So we're not going to move with a combination prop. But isolating points alone, we'd go OVER.

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