One of the more fun matchups on tonight’s NBA slate is the first of the evening, tipping off at 7 p.m. EST in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavaliers’ star duo of Donovan Mitchell and James Harden will face off against the Philadelphia 76ers, though Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid are sidelined for this contest due to various injuries.
DraftKings Sportsbook lists Cleveland as a 13.5-point favorite at home with -850 odds to win on the Moneyline. The game total is set at 226.5 combined points.
Here are the top 76ers vs. Cavaliers prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook for this matchup.
Best 76ers vs. Cavaliers player prop bets
Andre Drummond 8+ rebounds (-101)
The absence of Joel Embiid means backup Andre Drummond is once again positioned nicely to produce some counting stats tonight. So far this season, the latter has produced 6.6 points and 8.5 rebounds per game across 19.5 minutes a night. In games that Embiid doesn’t play though, Drummond has filled in quite nicely as the starter with a slight uptick in production. He receives 24.0 minutes a night over this 30-game sample, bringing in an average of 9.9 rebounds per outing. Sure, that’s not a massive difference by any means, but it’s still a decent margin of improvement with just a few extra minutes on average.
Beyond just the fact that he’ll see a heavier dosage of action, Drummond gets a decent matchup this evening. The Cavaliers rank 12th in team rebounds per game and 13th in REB%, but they’ll be without a key big man themselves, too. Jarrett Allen is out with knee tendonitis, meaning Evan Mobley should serve as the primary center this evening. Allen’s absence will prove key for the Sixers given his recent play — the veteran has averaged a whopping 21.0 points and 10.5 rebounds since February 1. With him sidelined, this is a much fairer battle on the glass and one which Drummond can certainly win given his strength advantage over Mobley. I like him to get to eight boards without much threat of missing the line.
Dennis Schroder 10+ points (-117)
Sticking with our role player lines tonight, Dennis Schroder’s points prop is actually a pretty intriguing option. The veteran guard played 40 games for the Kings this season before being shipped to Cleveland, where he’s appeared in 13 contests thus far. In that sample, he averages 10.1 points and 4.5 assists, though his shooting splits of 39.3% from the field and 31.4% from three leave a lot to be desired. Still, there’s some reason to feel good about this line of 10+ points tonight, even with both of Mitchell and Harden eating up guard minutes.
Schroder dropped 10+ points in four consecutive contests prior to last night’s outing against the Celtics in which he scored just two points. Over his last 10 contests, he’s recorded double-digit points a total of six times as well. While he may not get 30+ minutes as he did a couple of times over his recent streak, the fact that this game is night two of a back-to-back means the bench guards like Schroder could get a smidge more work than usual, especially with Mitchell recently dealing with injury issues that caused him to miss multiple contests. Plus, the Sixers are still something of an offensive force and will surely push the tempo with their ragtag bunch of scorers headlined by Kelly Oubre Jr. and Quentin Grimes.
