NBA Free Premium Play 02/13: Toronto Raptors @ New York Knicks

Toronto  at New York

NBA - 711 Toronto Raptors @ 712 New York Knicks Projected Line: NY Knicks by 12 points What a fun game this was to watch! Obviously, considering the final score, it's clear that this game was played Denver's way, with a 91.2 face factor! As much as Toronto's perimeter is now more explosive after the trade, the truth is that they were only able to be that on the offensive end yesterday, as they struggled on defense with the Nuggets doing everything they wanted off the dribble, especially Ty Lawson, who completely outplayed Kyle Lowry on this matchup by scoring 29 points with 9 treys made on a 12-20 shooting night! The Raptors's frontcourt were unable to rotate and offer some team help, so the result of that was Denver scoring 70 points in the paint! The Nuggets also owned the Raptors on the boards battle by grabbing 55% of the total boards and outrebounding Toronto by 18-15 on the offensive glass. So, as usual, when Denver gets the edge at the paint and on rebounding, they are competitive, no matter the opponent they are facing at the time. On the other side, Toronto took advantage of Denver's absences to have a big offensive game. DeMar DeRozan would have been very well defended by Andre Iguodala if he had played, but as Iguodala was out of yesterday's game, DeRozan had 22 points, 8-18 FG and 8 rebounds. Toronto shot a combined of 10-21 3pts and 13-23 FG on spot up shooting on a great outside shooting game for them. It's known that the Nuggets aren't a good defensive team in closing out the shooters and without their best perimeter defensive player on a poor physical spot for them, Denver naturally struggled on this department. This was especially visible during the fourth quarter. Do you want some proof of that? Well, these are the treys made by the Raptors during the fourth quarter: 10:22 80-85 John Lucas makes 26-foot three point jumper (DeMar DeRozan assists) 9:45 82-88 John Lucas makes 26-foot three point jumper (Rudy Gay assists) 9:10 83-91 John Lucas makes 26-foot three point jumper 7:03 89-94 Kyle Lowry makes 26-foot three point jumper (Amir Johnson assists) 6:18 92-97 John Lucas makes 25-foot three point jumper (Kyle Lowry assists) 5:13 94-100 Alan Anderson makes 26-foot three point jumper (John Lucas assists) 2:15 102-105 Alan Anderson makes 24-foot three point jumper (Amir Johnson assists) From the 10 FG made by Toronto in the last quarter of the game, seven of them were three pointers! Still, the Raptors had problems to keep up with Denver's game pace, something ironic considering it was the Nuggets who were on a bad spot and shorthanded for this game! For tonight's game, I really don't like Toronto's spot. They almost lost to Denver last night and they were completely out of gas at the end, especially their starters. The Raptors will play their fourth game in six days and this is also their last game before the All Star break. They won at Indiana on overtime, with Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan playing over 40 minutes, then they played at home against New Orleans, where Rudy Gay played 41 minutes, while yesterday nobody played 40 minutes against the Nuggets, but the game was so intense that it was clear that the Raptors's starters were fading away at the end. On the other side, we will have a Knicks team that hasn't played since early Sunday and where they got crushed by the Clippers on National Television, so they will be fired up today to face a tired Raptors team. Toronto won't be ready to play this game, as they simply didn't have time to prepare it and so, they will need to make the necessary adjustments during the game and there isn't a bigger contrast in the basketball styles of the Nuggets and the Knicks! We are talking about Toronto facing on a day a team with the most volume of shots at the rim in the league and then facing a team with the most volume of 3pts shots attempted in the league in the following day! Therefore, it will be very hard for the Raptors's defense to adjust. The Knicks had a tough game against the Clippers last Sunday, where their starters hung around the Clippers's starters, but the LA team's second unit made the difference in that game. The Knicks had an horrible spot up shooting game with 4-16 FG and 0.50 PPP, so I expect them to bounce back tonight on a very favorable spot for them. I believe the Knicks are going to blow out the Raptors tonight and so, I'll be taking them in here. Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 712 New York Knicks (-8,5) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5Dimes