The Toronto Raptors will try to rebound from a 98-88 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers when they continue their five-game western road trip in Portland on Wednesday night as 3-point underdogs on the NBA odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Toronto came up short in its first outing against last season’s NBA championship hero Kawhi Leonard, mustering just 10 points in the final frame on its way to defeat as a 9.5-point underdog. That was the team’s first straight-up loss in four outings ahead of Wednesday night’s Raptors vs. Trail Blazers betting matchup at Moda Center.
The Raptors largely contained Leonard, who struggled in going 2-for-11 on the evening while making nine turnovers. However, Toronto had no answer for a Clippers bench that accounted for 54 points on the night, and spearheaded a game-breaking 25-point fourth quarter.
The team’s weak finish to Monday’s loss in Los Angeles extended a trend that has seen them get outgunned in the fourth quarter in eight of their 10 outings. In addition, the loss to the Clippers also dumped the Raptors’ middling SU record on the road this season to 3-3.
And while they have managed to avoid consecutive SU defeats while going 7-3 through their first 10 games of the campaign, the Raptors have emerged as a shaky bet when pegged as road underdogs, going 1-3 against the spread so far this season, and 7-19 ATS in 26 regular season outings since last November, according to the OddsShark NBA Database.
The Raptors have enjoyed steady success in recent matchups with Portland, going 7-1 SU and 4-4 ATS in eight overall meetings since March 2015. That includes SU wins in three of four visits to Moda Center during that stretch. The Raptors have also won outright in each of their past two visits to Portland while pegged as betting underdogs, capped by a decisive 99-85 victory as 3.5-point underdogs back in October 2017.
However, it was the Trail Blazers that prevailed in the Raptors’ most recent visit to Rip City last December, taking down Toronto by a 128-122 score as 1.5-point home underdogs.
The Raptors, though, might be visiting Portland at just the right time. The Trail Blazers fell to defeat in their first three home contests this season before earning a 124-113 win over Atlanta as 9-point chalk in their last home game this past Saturday. That run comes in stark contrast to their domination on home hardwood last season, which they closed out on an 18-2 SU run.
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