NBA - 703 Minnesota Timberwolves @ 704 Toronto Raptors
Projected Line: 182 points | Toronto by 6 points
***Double Dime Play***
Toronto is winless this season, but they could easily be 2-0 right now. They faced Indiana and Brooklyn so far, two playoff contenders, and they gave them a good fight. Even though this is a back to back game for Toronto, the fact that the Raptors play at home today will make them be fired up to finally get the first win of the season.
Toronto's game yesterday has a fast pace and the Raptors had a sharp first quarter on offense by shooting 60% FG, assists on 12 of the 15 field goals made, while committing just one turnover. The problem was their second quarter, where a poor stretch of the second unit that had some defensive struggles and couldn't compensate the natural problems of their offense. Still, the Raptors cameback and had chances to win the game down the stretch. Their biggest problem was Brook Lopez, who was great last night and had also a bit of help from the referees in Brooklyn's new arena debut that didn't allow Toronto to be physical on their defense. In fact, the Raptors committed 31 personal fouls, while Brooklyn had just 19, something that caused both Jonas Valanciunas and Amir Johnson to be in early foul trouble. With this Brook Lopez had an easy matchup against the Raptors frontcourt and ended the game with 8-17 FG and especially 11-15 FT, something not usual for him, as he isn't aggressive enough to get 15 FT attempts in a single game!
Toronto will have an easier matchup today, as they will face Minnesota, who is still without Kevin Love. Derrick Williams and Andrei Kirilenko have been the team's forwards, so Andrea Bargnani won't have a bad matchup in here. Minnesota was the best defensive team in the league during the preseason and they really shutdown Sacramento on their first game of the season by allowing just 80 points and an offensive rate of 85.9! The Wolves are athletic on the backcourt and AK47 is terrific in rotation and providing some help defense. The problem is that Minnesota is still a work in progress on offense and Kevin Love's is a huge absence on the offensive end. The fact that they had just 17 assists against the Kings shows exactly this. Toronto has also a good defensive backcourt and therefore, I expect this game to become a defensive battle. I expect some edge for Kyle Lowry over the Wolves backcourt and with Andrea Bargnani also taking advantage of his size edge against both Andrei Kirilenko and Derrick Williams. Therefore, I expect a relatively comfortable win for Toronto in a defensive battle and so, I'll be taking both the Raptors and the Under in here with the Under being a Double Dime Play.
Pick: 4 units (Double Dime Play) on 703/704 Under 189.5 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 704 Toronto Raptors (-3) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
No comments:
Post a Comment