The Toronto Raptors will be gunning for a fifth consecutive straight-up victory when they open a two-game road trip in Brooklyn on Wednesday night.
Toronto has rediscovered a high gear during its longest SU surge since mid-February, claiming victory by double-digit margins in three of its four recent wins going into Wednesday’s Raptors vs. Nets betting matchup at Barclays Center.
With Monday’s decisive 121-109 win over the visiting Orlando Magic as 6.5-point chalk on the NBA odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com, the Raptors claimed their fifth Atlantic Division title in six years, and also locked up second place overall in the Eastern Conference standings.
But with just four games remaining on the schedule, the Raptors look unlikely to close the three-game gap separating them from the conference-leading Milwaukee Bucks. However, the team continues to sit close on Milwaukee’s heels as a solid +230 wager on the odds to win this year’s Eastern Conference championship.
The Raptors have also been steady road performers of late, winning three straight contests away from Scotiabank Arena, including dominating wins in New York and Chicago during their current SU win streak.
In fact, the team have been more reliable producers on the road than at home in recent weeks. The Raptors have gone 9-3 SU while covering on seven occasions over their past 12 road games. Conversely, Toronto is just 6-4 SU in its past 10 on home court, and picked up against the spread wins in just four of 13 home dates, according to the OddsShark NBA Database.
While the Raptors are likely locked in as the No. 2 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference, the Nets enter Wednesday night’s clash engaged in a tough four-way fight for the final three playoff spots in the East.
Brooklyn is coming off a 131-121 loss to the Bucks as 1-point home favourites on Monday night, and has now fallen to outright defeat in six of its past nine contests. The Nets maintain a slender grasp on seventh place in the conference, which currently sets the stage for a first-round playoff matchup with Toronto.
The Nets trail sixth-place Detroit by just a half-game, but also sit just a half-game up on eighth-place Miami, and 1.5 games ahead of the Magic, who slipped out of the playoff picture with Monday’s loss in Toronto.
Things get no easier for the Nets, who have dropped 14 of 15 SU to Toronto since April 2015. However, Brooklyn escaped with a 106-105 win as an 8.5-point underdog at betting sites in its last home date with the Raptors, and has covered in four of the last six head-to-head meetings between the two teams.
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