NBA Betting – Toronto Raptors at Washington Wizards

Toronto Raptors at Washington Wizards (-2.5, 202.5 o/u)

Tonight, the Toronto Raptors (31-15) will land in Washington to face the Wizards (31-16) in a battle of top Eastern Conference teams. Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m. Eastern at the Verizon Center.

The winner of tonight’s game will find itself second in the Eastern Conference for the time being (but still well back of Conference-leading Atlanta).

The Raptors, who struggled to find their rhythm when DeMar DeRozan returned from injury, look to have turned a corner. The team has won four straight, and point guard Kyle Lowry has emerged as a bona fide all-star, averaging 19.4 points, 7.4 assists, and 1.6 steals per game.

The Wizards, meanwhile, have split their last eight games and now find themselves eight games back of the Hawks in the Southeast Division. Most recently, they dropped a road game to the Phoenix Suns (106-98), failing to cover as 6.5-point dogs.

Like the Raptors, the Wizards’ offense is also driven by a star point guard, John Wall. The former first-overall pick is averaging 17.2 points per game to lead the team and dropping double-digit dimes (10.2 APG).

The real strength of this year’s Wizards, though, is defense. The team is top-ten in both points against per game (97.7) and defensive rating (103.3). The “Polish Hammer”, Marcin Gortat, has been clutch at the defensive end, pulling down over eight rebounds per game and averaging almost 1.5 blocks per night.

The Raptors have downed the Wizards in seven of the last ten meetings. The more recent games have tended to be lopsided, as well, with Toronto winning by double-digits in four of the last six. Given their recent success against Washington, their current hot-streak, and their decent record on the road (13-8), take the Raptors and the points (+2.5).

(Photo credit: Keith Allison (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)