Jason

No Joel Embiid in all but one of the games, a game early in the season where he looks terrible, super immobile.

It's very early in the year.

They got crushed when he was on the floor and then dominated when he was off the floor.

So we don't really have any good look at what Embiid would look like in this matchup.

The series prices, again, all of our lines are provided by our partner Hard Rock Bet.

The Celtics are a minus 900 favorite.

with the Sixers at plus 550.

Another one where I don't really like the underdog line just because I think I have a really hard time seeing the Sixers winning this series.

Now, as of right now, we have basically no idea as to whether or not Joel Embiid will play in this series.

I'm going to proceed today under the impression that he does not.

Now, if for whatever reason he gets announced as returning to the series at some point, we will cover that when that happens.

My only thought as of right now is that how it could look in the event that he does return is that it would both help and hurt them.

To be clear, the numbers clearly show that the Sixers are a better team when it beats on the floor versus when he's off, including on defense.

I just think in this particular matchup, it gets a little more complicated, especially now that he's older, more banged up, and less mobile than he used to be.

This series, in many ways, is going to come down to attacking drop coverage looks for both teams, but especially the Sixers.

And Joel Embiid just gives you another side of the drop coverage look.

to attack.

The Celtics drop is designed to protect the paint.

We're going to dig more into that here in a minute.

They do concede pops.