Analysis:1* Take Toronto (#880)
We’re getting a good opportunity to ‘buy low’ with the
Toronto Raptors this afternoon. Toronto just
went through a particularly ugly stretch of nine losses in a ten game span following
their blowout win at Atlanta immediately following the All Star Break. No, the Raptors didn’t play well on either
end of the court at any point during that run.
But it’s surely worth noting that the Raptors were certainly ‘up against
it’ schedule wise. Seven of those nine
losses came on the highway; six of them coming against teams that would be in the
playoffs if they started today. Their
only two home games during that stretch?
Golden State and Cleveland, arguably the two best teams in the league. Throw in three sets of back-2-backs and no
periods with more than one day between games and you can understand why things
went south for Toronto so fast in recent weeks.
But the Raptors had an extra day off prior to their last
game, at home against a Heat team that had beaten them 16 consecutive
times. Dwane Casey’s squad delivered a
wire-2-wire victory, snapping their funk at home. Point guard Kyle Lowry played his best game
since sitting out for three contests to get some additional rest. Casey: “He was back to the old Kyle. He was moving the ball, he made his shots
and his 3s, which were huge." And
the Raptors finished with 26 assists on 34 made baskets against a pretty darn
good defensive team, which is a ‘buy’ sign statistic for me! And it’s surely worth noting that prior to
those home losses to the Cavs and Warriors, Toronto had beaten three playoff
teams - the Wizards, Clippers and Spurs -- in their previous three home games;
enjoying a fairly strong home court edge.
Portland is a tad bit ‘fat and
happy’ off back-2-back home wins; 7-1 in their last eight games even after the
loss of sharpshooter Wesley Matthews to a season ending injury. They are opening up a brutal scheduling
stretch of their own, playing five games in seven days on the East Coast over
the next week – head coach Terry Stotts is going to have to manage his minutes
very carefully, especially with another tough test against the Wizards on tap
for tomorrow night. They lost their only
previous road game since Matthews went down, beaten soundly in Minnesota. I’m not convinced this game is going to go
any better for the road underdog than that one did! Take
Toronto.
Pick Made: Mar 15 2015 8:20AM PST