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Wed. NBA preview and pick!

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  • Wed. NBA preview and pick!

    7pm ET
    Washington Wizards @ Philadelphia 76ers

    The Philadelphia 76ers are a notoriously poor home favorite and tonight we expect the visiting Washington Wizards to keep this one close right until the final buzzer.

    Philadelphia are a bankroll busting 1-10 ATS this season and just 14-28 ATS the last three seasons as a home favorite of 3.5 to 6 points.

    Following their 21-31 SU start to this season they sacked coach Randy Ayers yesterday. Chris Ford replaces Ayers and he is a combined 311-358 in three previous coaching stints in the NBA. We're fully aware that many teams respond well in their first game following a coaching change but the question tonight is whether Philadelphia is good enough to win by 7 points or more? We believe tonight's line is inflated with everyone anticipating a rejuvenated 76ers line-up. But Allen Iverson is banged up, upset with his team's lack of effort and has shot a combined 11-for-31 (35.4%) from the field in his last two games. Aaron Mckie is struggling, Eric Snow is slow and big men Derrick Coleman and Glenn Robinson just haven't produced.

    Philadelphia have lost six of their last eight games SU at home and were outscored by an average of 6.6 ppg during that stretch. We believe the 76ers will struggle to cover the line tonight against a team that has shown some recent signs of life. The 76ers overall record at home this season is just 12-14 SU and 10-16 ATS.

    The Wizards had finally gotten healthy in the last week with the return of Jerry Stackhouse and Gilbert Arenas following long-term injuries. Although they lost leading scorer Larry Hughes in their most recent game we're expecting Stackhouse and Arenas to step it up tonight. They did exactly that against the Cavaliers Saturday when Hughes had to leave the game in the first quarter and didn't return.

    Stackhouse scored 19 points and dished out 11 assists against Cleveland and that followed a 19 point first half against the LA Clippers. He has now played the last four straight after missing the first 45 games of this season.

    Arenas missed 26 games with a strained abdomen and Saturday was just his third game back since coming off the injured list. He scored 26 points against the Cavaliers and also did a good job defensively on rookie sensation LeBron James. Arenas also led the Wizards scoring the previous night against the Clippers.
    While still needing to improve immensely, former number 1 overall pick Kwame Brown has been playing better ball recently. The power forward scored 22 points and pulled down seven rebounds against the Clippers and followed it up with 22 and 10 against the Cavs.

    Washington has performed poorly on the road this season but are a different team with Stackhouse and Arenas together in the line-up. And we're not asking them to win SU tonight....just to keep this one close and get us the cover.

    Recommended Play: Wizards +6
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