Today on the NBA, we will see the Philadelphia 76ers travel to take on the Toronto Raptors in an exciting contest. The game is scheduled for an 7:00 pm start time and it will be televised live on TCN-PHI (Philadelphia) and TSN (Toronto). Currently the odds for the game have the Raptors favored by 2,5 points, while the totals line is set at 188 points. Opening lines had the Raptors favored by 2 points, while the totals line was set at 185,5 points.
Game Analysis: Philadelphia definitely have a had road win last night at Boston, but this win came with a price: Thaddeus Young played 41 minutes, Evan Turner 41 minutes and Jrue Holliday 42 minutes! This big night of Philadelphia was mostly due to a tremendous lack of speed from Boston at the perimeter. It was very easy for Philadelphia's guards to outrun the Celtics' perimeter and also take advantage that Boston doesn't have a shot blocked! Philadelphia shot 10-10 FG in transition and the final numbers show that Thaddeus Young, Evan Turner and Jrue Holliday had a big game and that was mostly due to their penetrations and the Celtics' lack of opposition to prevent their opponents from scoring down low with ease.
The 76ers didn't change their identity, it was really Boston that had a defensive no-show last night. Therefore, I expect Philadelphia to have a letdown tonight. So, the doubt is to know if Toronto will keep defending so badly like they've been on this early season. They have been fouling a lot (dead last at opposing FT rate with 40.2%), but Philadelphia's offense doesn't try to take advantage of that, as they are one of the teams with less FT attempts per game on the league. After their loss at Dallas, Toronto will perform some changes on defense:
“Today we got after it, man,” forward Anderson said. “(Casey) posted the defensive percentages last year versus now and we could see where we let off. We want to get back to where we were at least last year and those will bring wins right there, just getting back to that.”
“We are going to get back to that,” Casey said. “We have to get those numbers down. Our major problem is not protecting the paint. We are stretched out. Our steals numbers are up and that’s not a number I like because that means our paint is open.
Last year we were third or fourth in protecting against points in the paint and that’s what we have to do. That’s where our problems start. The other part is getting back in transition to give our defence a chance. Most of those are in the first quarter for whatever reason.”
Basically, Toronto has been playing at a faster pace this season, while being very aggressive and trying to force turnovers. But they can't be too aggressive because it leaves you open underneath and when you don’t have a guy with Tyson Chandler`s mobility who can hedge a guard and come back to contest the baseline drive, you suddenly have choices to make.
I expect Toronto to be more conservative today and not rushing in their search for turnovers, as the truth is that Philadelphia is one of the teams in the league with less turnovers per game. I believe this game will be a slow paced half court game, with Philadelphia struggling on their shooting due to their tired legs from yesterday, while their defense is always good and they should be able to limit Toronto's offense, who is still trying to find their identity. Therefore, I'll be taking the Under in here.
Free Pick: Take Under 188 in here (Single Dime Play)