The Toronto Raptors will officially begin the defence of their NBA title on Monday when they open their Eastern Conference first-round set against the Brooklyn Nets as 9.5-point Game 1 favourites on the NBA odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Toronto has maintained the torrid pace it set before the recent pause in the schedule, winning straight up in seven of eight contests since play resumed earlier this month, and now sits as the No. 2 seed in the East going into Monday afternoon’s matchup down in Orlando.
Overall, the Raptors currently enjoy a steady 11-1 SU run, and have lost outright in consecutive games on just one occasion since Christmas, when they dropped three in a row in late February. Toronto’s offence has also shown signs of heating up in recent outings, averaging 118.7 points per game over the final three dates on the team’s regular season schedule, capped by a decisive 117-109 win over Denver as a 2.5-point underdog on Friday.
But despite entering the playoffs as clearly the hottest team in the league, and sporting the NBA’s second best record, the Raptors continue to lag on the NBA championship odds. The Raptors have made gains at the sportsbooks, but still sit well short of co-favourites Los Angeles and Milwaukee as a +900 wager to repeat as NBA champions.
No such doubts exist on the NBA playoff series prices, though, where the Raptors look to their series opener against Brooklyn set as heavy -2200 chalk to claim a first-round series win for a fifth straight year.
However, the Raptors can ill afford to look past the Nets, who have been steady since resuming play, going 5-3 SU in eight contests to close out the regular season. Overall, Brooklyn has posted SU wins in nine of 13 outings since the beginning of March, and has also been a solid bet against the spread, going 10-4 ATS in its past 14 games.
The Nets’ recent steady performance is all the more remarkable given the number of players missing from their lineup. Among the injured are Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, while the list of players who opted out of the NBA restart includes Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan and Wilson Chandler.
And while the Raptors have twice lost first-round series to Brooklyn, they have dominated the Nets of late. Toronto is 18-2 SU and 12-8 ATS in its past 20 dates with the Nets, with 10 of those victories coming by double-digit margins. That has contributed to Brooklyn’s distant position as +1000 underdogs on the series prices at online sports betting sites.
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