The Indiana Pacers will trade the warm Mexican bay air for the cold Canada breeze as they travel north to face the Toronto Raptors. But the climate change won’t mean they’ll face any lesser opponent than their previous one, and the fact that they’ve beaten the Dinos just a week ago doesn’t change the size of their next challenge.
Pacers at Raptors
Spread: Toronto -6.5 (-110) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: over/under 215.5 points (-110)
The Pacers get blown out in Houston
For 27 minutes Wednesday night, the Indiana Pacers hung with one of the NBA’s best teams, trailing by one early in the third quarter. But, with their shot abandoning them for a night, it was always a matter of time when the Houston Rockets will catch fire, and they surely did. The Pacers fought, but still got ousted from the city with a 97-118 defeat.
Thaddeus Young led the Pacers with 23 points on 11-of-15 field goal shooting, but it wasn’t nearly enough, as Oladipo was just 8-of-20, Turner 6-of-14, and Pacers hit just 7-of-28 of their three-point tries. At least they’ve hit 100 percent of their free throws. All six of them. The Pacers don’t have a consistent low post game to fall back on when they aren’t hitting outside shots, and when they can’t get their up-tempo game going. Earlier this month, the Pacers lost 118-95 to Houston at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Different venue, similar outcome. The good news, they don’t get to play the Rockets this season anymore. The Rockets are simply just the much more talented team and it showed in the second half. Indiana’s defense looked vulnerable both inside and outside. The longer the game went, the more Houston got open shots. The Pacers were beaten one-on-one, and they did not rotate quickly enough to shooters. Meanwhile, the Pacers were badly outrebounded, and Capela had his way in the paint. Finally, Harden took over, did his superstar thing, and the Pacers were trailing by 20.
The good news is that they’ve escaped the game without any new injuries, so they just have to put the last game behind them and be ready to tackle new opponents. Their next four opponents are Eastern teams, and those games count for double.
Place: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Date/Time: Friday, December 1st, 2017. 7:30 PM ET
TV Coverage: FSN, TSN
Lowry and DeRozan lead the Raptors in a win over Charlotte
Kyle Lowry scored a season-best 36 points with six assists and five rebounds, DeMar DeRozan added 30 points with six assists and four rebounds and the Toronto Raptors defeated the Charlotte Hornets 126-113 on Wednesday night. The Raptors improved to 7-1 at home and kept pace with the surging Cavaliers for a share of the third place in the East.
Toronto had a seemingly comfortable 19-point lead at the half over the Hornets, who were without guard Kemba Walker. But instead of burying a weakened opponent, Toronto watched as the Hornets rattled off 10-0 run that extended to 19-2 run of the second half and rip the Raptors’ lead to two with only four minutes gone in the second half. Toronto had some bad starts off the third quarter before, and it cost them games, but this time they’ve responded, making runs to counter Charlotte’s attempts to close down the deficit and make things interesting. Coach Casey was still fuming after the game, as he knows all too well that the Raptors won’t see Lowry go 8-of-11 behind the three-point line any night. The Raptors shot themselves out of trouble, going 52-of-98 from the field, and 14-of-32 from three-point territory. The shots were falling, but they still settled a bit too much for the jumper for my taste, getting only 11 times to the free throw line, while sending Charlotte players to the line 35 times. Yet, they never trailed, and score 60 points in the paint, helped by a solid game from Valanciunas and Poeltl inside.
Nogueira left the last game with a strained right calf and his availability for Friday’s tilt against the Pacers is clouded. His time on the court diminished but is still a valuable defensive piece. Backup guard Wright remains out. The Raptors will have 4 days off after this game, so they should be prepared to give it all in.
Indiana Pacers at Toronto Raptors Game Trends & Prediction
Indiana followed up a great period with a meh period, failing to cover twice in the last three games. Each time, they were held below 100 points, so they need to score to be good. Still, their backers won’t complain much – the Pacers are 13-9 against the spread for the season and 7-5 when traveling. They are 11-11 on the totals market and the fluctuations have been too high to draw any conclusions.
The Toronto Raptors wouldn’t allow Charlotte back in, beating the handicap in the process and improving to 12-8 against the spread overall, and 5-3 north of the border. The high scoring affair snapped a streak of 5 straight unders, bringing their O/U record to 9-11, and 5-3 at home.
Admi-Rank: Indy’s down arrow comes from a bad loss in Houston, but I don’t think this will linger. They are no match for the top teams, and that comes to no surprise. Toronto, on the other hand, can go to Houston and win. They blowout most of their recent opponents. This is why they’re in a different tier than the Pacers, and they might not be done.
In their previous meeting on November 24th in Indianapolis, the Pacers made a large comeback in the third quarter, similar to what the Hornets tried to pull off. DeRozan was quiet and the Raptors squandered up too many possessions on sheer carelessness. Still, the Pacers up-tempo transition three bother them dearly, so stopping those will be the main focus for the Canadian team. Even with the loss, the Raptors did seem like a better team in that game, so they should be in good position to win this one at home.
They are set as a 6.5-point home jolly to open the market with, a surprisingly low number considering that they were a 3-point favorite in Indiana. There’s the significant home court advantage when the Raptors play in front of their own fans, and the recent loss to the Pacers still stings, making this something of a revenge game. Also, the fair number here should be closer to 9, so this is a terrific value to have on such a good team. Hopefully, they’ll remember to play after the break this time. The totals aren’t too tempting, having been set at 215.5 points. I’m rolling with 214 in this game, but it’s nowhere near enough difference to go after the unders.
My Pick: Toronto -6.5 (-110)
Total: (no wager on the total points)
