The Toronto Raptors survived their second-round series against the Miami Heat with a convincing Game 7 victory on Sunday afternoon, but Kyle Lowry and company are pegged as huge underdogs against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Eastern Conference Finals at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The Cavaliers, who swept the Detroit Pistons and the Atlanta Hawks in the first two rounds of the post-season, are set as heavy -1000 favourites (bet $1000 to win $100) on the NBA series prices at the sportsbooks, with the Raptors listed as +600 underdogs (bet $100 to win $600).
And Toronto is also set as a 10.5-point road underdog for Game 1 of the series at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday night. The Raptors were only listed as a double-digit underdog once this past season, falling 102-95 at San Antonio back on April 2 but managing to cover the 13.5-point spread in the contest. In their last 10 games as a double-digit underdog dating back to 2012 the Raptors are 2-8 straight up but 6-4 against the spread.
The Cavaliers are 12-17-1 against the spread in their last 30 games as double-digit favourites according to the OddsShark NBA Database. Cleveland was 28-2 straight up in that stretch. The favourite has only covered the spread three times in the last 16 games between the Cavaliers and the Raptors.
Cleveland lost two of its three games against Toronto during the regular season, both straight up and against the spread. Those two Raptors wins came at the Air Canada Centre on November 25 and February 26; when the teams met at Quicken Loans Arena on January 4 the Cavaliers rolled to a 122-100 victory and easily covered the eight-point spread.
The Cavaliers have gone 5-3 against the spread so far in the playoffs during their two sweeps, including covering three times in four games against the Hawks last round. The Raptors covered the spread in three of their last five games against the Heat in the second round, but that improved them to just 5-9 ATS in the playoffs.
Tipoff for the Raptors at Cavaliers Game 1 matchup on Tuesday night is set for 8:30 p.m. ET. Cleveland enters the Eastern Conference Finals with an empty injury report, while Toronto isn’t expected to have centre Jonas Valanciunas (ankle) back for the opener. Valanciunas’ status for the third round is still up in the air, with Bismack Biyombo starting in his absence.
