Following a 4-3 seven-game road trip, the Toronto Raptors are back home Wednesday to host the San Antonio Spurs.
The pregame narrative: With tomorrow’s NBA trade deadline looming, this could be the last game together for some of Toronto’s biggest stars. We expect the Raptors to come out of the gates firing and light up the scoreboard all night long against the league’s worst defence.
Here are our Spurs vs. Raptors picks for February 8.
Odds as of 9:57 a.m. on 02/08/2023.
Spurs vs. Raptors picks
Best Bet : Raptors -6.5 1H spread (-113)
The Raps haven’t enjoyed much success this season but they’ve been a surprisingly solid first-half team — against the spread, at least.
Toronto’s 31-24 first-half ATS record is the fourth-best mark in basketball, according to EV Analytics. Compare that to San Antonio’s 24-29-1 ATS record (22nd) and we’ve got something cooking here.
The Spurs are bound to have terrible numbers regardless of what lens you view them through, and that’s because Greg Popovich’s team refuses to play defence. San Antonio allows the most points per game (122.6) and has the worst defensive rating (120.4) in the NBA.
The Spurs have lost 17 of their last 19 games coming into tonight’s contest, including each of their last nine. They’ve also been down by seven-plus points at the half in five of their past six games.
Toronto, meanwhile, has been slowly piecing things together, completing a successful road trip with back-to-back wins over the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies. The Raptors’ most recent victory over the Grizzlies, who are 22-5 at home, is something to build off.
Expect Toronto to come out flying against San Antonio.
Key stat: Toronto has covered the first-half spread in seven of its last 10 games.
Quick picks
Raptors over 122.5 points (-113): Toronto has only gone over this mark in two of its past five games but this should be attainable. San Antonio has conceded 123-plus points in five of its last six games and four of its past five on the road.
The Raptors aren’t scoring machines but they did hang 143 points on the Spurs back in November, which remains their highest output of the season.
Over 233 points (-112): We expect Toronto to score plenty of points and that should translate to the over on the game total cashing, too. The over has hit in 10 of the Raptors’ last 15 games and in 10 of their last 12 games following an ATS win.
San Antonio is an overs machine thanks to its poor defence. The Spurs cash overs at the third-highest rate (59.6%) in the NBA, and 12 of their last 14 road games have gone over the total.
Disclaimer This content was produced as part of a partnership and therefore it may not meet the standards of impartial or independent journalism.
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