NBA Odds – Toronto Raptors at Miami Heat

Toronto Raptors at Miami Heat (-2, 197.5)

The Toronto Raptors will visit the American Airlines Arena to face the Miami Heat on Sunday, November 2, in their second game in Florida in three days. Tip-off is at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.

The Raptors won their season opener, beating the Hawks (109-102) in Toronto. The team was led by Jonas Valanciunas and DeMar DeRozan. The Lithuanian scored 17 points and got eight rebounds, while DeRozan scored 15 points, pulled down 11 rebounds, and also had six steals. On Friday, Toronto downed the Victor Oladipo-less Magic. DeRozan and point guard Kyle Lowry spearheaded the offense against Orlando, scoring 26 and 21, respectively.

Meanwhile, Miami also won their first game of the season, 107-95 over the Washington Wizards.  Chris Bosh had a double-double (26 points, 15 rebounds). Dwyane Wade had 21 points and three dimes in 31 minutes of action. Yesterday, the Heat brushed aside the rebuilding 76ers, 114-96. Bosh again led the way with 30 points, while Kansas product Mario Chalmers put up 20.

Toronto struggled against Miami in the LeBron years, losing ten straight and going just 3-7 ATS against a dominant Heat team that made it to four straight NBA finals.

However, King James is gone and now Bosh, a former Raptor, is the focal point of the Heat offense. Through two games, Bosh looks up to the challenge of carrying the offensive load.

The Heat are two-point favorites, which looks about right. The Raptors proved to be a playoff caliber team last year, and looked quite good in their first two games. But they’re on the road and played two nights ago. Meanwhile, the Heat showed that they are still a threat in the relatively weak Eastern Conference, rolling over last year’s fifth place finisher Washington and cellar-dwelling Philadelphia.

(Photo credit: Keith Allison (Flickr: Chris Bosh) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped from its original.)