Analysis

Cleveland went 4-0 straight-up, 2-1-1 against the spread in last year's meetings. Six of the last eight meetings have gone over the total, and one of the two unders only did so by a half-point. Both teams were swept out of last year's playoffs by the Knicks. Cleveland will be making its season debut in this contest. The Cavs' core of Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen remain intact and they added Peyton Watson from the Nuggets. The new-look Sixers got off to a great start, spoiling the Knicks' ring night with a 106-100 win at Madison Square Garden. Philadelphia's defense held New York to 37-percent shooting from the field and they forced 14 turnovers. Six Sixers finished in double figures led by 28 points from Tyrese Maxey. After seeing Philadelphia's defensive effort on Tuesday, we're going to look toward another under in this one. The Sixers essentially went with a seven-man rotation in New York with Anfernee Simons and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope coming off the bench. With aging LeBron James, Joel Embiid and Jaylen Brown on the roster, Nick Nurse knows that he's going to need his bench this season. All five starters played over 33 minutes against the Knicks, which Nurse probably knows will be a luxury whenever that happens. Look for Philadelphia to dig a little deeper into the bench tonight at home. Also, Cleveland's offense wasn't flying at full-speed at the beginning of last season. The Cavs scored an average of 114 points per game across their first seven games last year, which was five points below their season average. It took a while for Cleveland's offense to click, and Philadelphia won't be an easy place to get things started this season.
Play the Under

The Thunder went 3-1 straight-up, 1-3 against the spread in the four meetings last season. Both games played in Oklahoma City went down to the wire as the first went to overtime and the Thunder won the second by three. All four meetings went over the total. Denver will be making its season debut after getting eliminated by Minnesota in last year's playoffs. The Nuggets kept their core of Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon intact, but changed a lot of the role players around them. Peyton Watson, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown have been replaced by DeMar DeRozan, Alpha Diallo and Marvin Bagley III. Oklahoma City returns home after beating San Antonio 116-104 on Tuesday. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 32 points and the Thunder shot 14-of-31 (45.2-percent) from three-point range. Take preseason results with a grain of salt, but Denver destroyed the Lakers in their final warmup last Friday. The Nuggets shot 58.2-percent and led by 14 after the first quarter with both teams playing their starting units. There will likely be some questions asked about Denver's supporting cast through out the season, but at full strength heading into the opener, we believe Denver can be a thorn in Oklahoma City's side once again.
Play Denver Nuggets