Having advanced past the Indiana Pacers and into the second round of the NBA playoffs with Sunday’s Game 7 win, the Toronto Raptors have opened as just small betting favourites for their upcoming series against the Miami Heat at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The Raptors are just -160 favourites (bet $160 to win $100) against the +140 Heat (bet $100 to win $140) at the sportsbooks for their second-round series, which is set to get underway at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night. Toronto is listed as a 4.5-point favourite for Tuesday’s Game 1, with the OVER/UNDER at 191 points for totals bettors.
Toronto finished off the Pacers by holding on for an 89-84 win in Game 7 on Sunday night, failing to cover the six-point spread at the sportsbooks in the contest. DeMar DeRozan led the way for the Raptors with a 30-point performance in Game 7, with Norman Powell good for 13 points off the bench, and Jonas Valanciunas grabbing 15 rebounds.
The Raptors’ loss on the betting lines on Sunday was the fourth straight time they’d failed to cover the spread in the series, and the fifth in their seven-game clash against the Pacers. The UNDER paid out for totals bettors in six of the seven games of Toronto’s first-round set.
The Heat also needed seven games to close out their first-round series, knocking out the Charlotte Hornets with a convincing 106-73 win in Game 7 on Sunday and easily covering the six-point spread at the sportsbooks. Miami covered the spread in four of seven games against Charlotte in the first round, producing five UNDER results at the sportsbooks in that span.
Toronto had the edge on Miami during the regular season, winning three of four meetings both straight up and ATS according to the OddsShark NBA Database. The teams last met on March 12 in Toronto with the Raptors winning by a 112-104 score as 6.5-point home chalk.
And while the Raptors have now won a seven-game series for the first time in franchise history, they’re still well behind on the odds to win the NBA championship at the sportsbooks. Those betting futures as of Monday night had Toronto set as a +5000 longshot to claim the NBA title this spring, although still ahead of +6600 Miami. Golden State was the +110 favourite.