Philadelphia 76ers C Joel Embiid will rest on Monday night and isn’t playing against the Memphis Grizzlies. The Sixers enter Monday having won four in a row and are making a push toward the top of the East standings at 30-19. The NBA MVP favorite at the moment, Embiid will finish with an average of 34 points and 10 rebounds in the month of January. He’s been on an absolute tear to overtake Stephen Curry as the favorite to win MVP. Let’s take a look at how the Sixers will manage without the big man.
With no Embiid, the Sixers will lean on Tobias Harris and Tyrese Maxey on offense. Both players get a nice boost in NBA DFS on DraftKings for Monday night’s slate. The other big name who will benefit is Andre Drummond, who could be a very chalky play on the slate. Drummond has been pretty efficient off the bench while making a handful of spot starts for Embiid, averaging nearly 9 rebounds per game in just 18 minutes.
As for the lines, the Sixers went from being favored to being 4-point underdogs on DraftKings Sportsbook. It’ll be tough for Philly to compete with Memphis, which has been one of the better teams in the NBA over the past few months. The Grizzlies are 35-17 and Ja Morant is also among the NBA MVP candidates. This would have been a big matchup for the MVP if Embiid were playing.