NBA Playoffs 2019: 76ers vs Raptors, Blazers vs Nuggets Game 7 Odds, Storylines
The 23 games played in the conference semifinal round of the NBA playoffs have delivered plenty of drama.
On Sunday, the 24th and 25th games of the second round take place in Denver and Toronto, with the winners advancing to the next round.
Portland and Philadelphia kept their respective series alive Thursday, but now they have to follow those victories up with Game 7 road wins to keep their championship hopes afloat.
Both Denver and Toronto won two of the last three games in their series, and the two sides won their last home contests.
There will be plenty of intriguing storylines to follow throughout Sunday's Game 7 doubleheader, but a few stand out among the pack as the most important ones to watch.
Game 7 Odds
Portland (+200; Bet $100 to win $200) at Denver (-230; Bet $230 to win $100)
Philadelphia (+220) at Toronto (-275)
Storylines to Watch
Can the Sixers Get the Best Out of Embiid?
Joel Embiid needs to make a significant impact in the scoring column for the Sixers to pull away from the Raptors in Game 7.
Embiid's production has fluctuated throughout the series. He scored 33 points in Game 3, but since then, he has 41 points in three contests. With Toronto likely making defensive adjustments to contain Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris, Embiid needs to enforce his presence in the paint.
Embiid's influence in Game 6 was displayed by his plus-40 plus/minus and the double-double he picked up, but he needs to score more than 17 points in order to give the Sixers a well-rounded offensive attack.
The Raptors have guards capable of shutting down Simmons or one of the other perimeter players for stretches, but they do not have a great matchup inside against Embiid.
In the regular season, the Sixers were 19-10 when Embiid scored over 30 points and they are 2-0 in the playoffs when the big man reached that scoring threshold.
In the losses in Games 4 and 5 against Toronto, Embiid recorded two of his three lowest career postseason scoring totals.
The more Embiid can score Sunday, the more likely the Sixers are to come away with a victory.
But if the Raptors shut down the big man, they could be in line to earn an Eastern Conference Finals matchup with Milwaukee.
Which Superstars Will Stand Out the Most in Denver?
Portland's Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum and Denver's Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray have dueled throughout the first six games of their series. Sunday's Game 7 should be another showdown of superstars with a place against the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals on the line.
Jokic and Murray combined for 44 points in Denver's first-round Game 7 victory over San Antonio, while Lillard put the dagger in Oklahoma City with an unreal 37-foot game-winning shot.
The four players mentioned above were four of the five top scorers in Game 6, with Rodney Hood being the other star performer for the Blazers with 25 points.
Jokic has an advantage in the paint against Portland's frontcourt players, while all of the guards have proved to make tough shot after tough shot in the postseason.
The contest at Pepsi Center could come down to which team has the ball last, or it could take one stretch of brilliance by a single player to create enough separation.
Regardless of how Game 7 plays out in Denver, we are likely to witness yet another star-studded duel that will leave us in awe.
Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.
Statistics obtained from Basketball Reference.
