The NBA schedule isn’t making this game a very fair fight. The Raptors haven’t been in action since Thursday when they were blown out of the building by the Memphis Grizzlies 155-126. The Atlanta Hawks were at home on Saturday afternoon and earned a hard-fought 120-110 victory over the Miami Heat, yet they’re the ones who have to make to Toronto for Sunday night.

Nevertheless, our NBA odds favour Atlanta, if only slightly, pegging them at -1.5.

Hawks vs. Raptors NBA Betting Odds

In 2023-24, Atlanta and Toronto split their four-game regular season têtes-à-têtes at two games apiece. Each team earned one win on the other’s home court, too. The contests in Georgia were close, with margins of one and two points. Conversely, the Hawks’ win in Ontario was by 21 points and the Dinos won by seven.

Things aren’t great in Atlanta this season but nor are they terrible. At 17-15 in the standings, they’re actually in sixth place in a typically dubious Eastern Conference. Trae Young is up to his familiar tricks this season, averaging 22.0 points a game and a league-high 12.1 assits. On the flip side, he turns the ball over 4.5 times per match. Atlanta has covered three times in a row to improve their ATS record to 14-18-0.

There aren’t many things to shout about with the Raptors this season, save for their impressive 19-11-1 efforts against the spread. Incredibly, however, they didn’t cover either of their last two despite being 13.5 and 10.5 underdogs. Other positive tidbits in Toronto are RJ Barrett’s and Scottie Barnes’ presence in the top 50 scorers with 20.2 and 19.9, respectively.

Arguably a major factor for this particular game: Atlanta and Toronto have the seventh and 14^th best offences in the NBA, but the 27^th and 26^th ranked defences. Hello, over-under.

Atlanta Hawks

The Hawks capped off their home stand with a noteworthy 120-110 win over the visiting Miami Heat on Saturday afternoon. They took what was a highly contested match at the start of the third quarter and slowly but surely put their stamp on it as the second half wore on.

Tyler Herro’s best efforts (28 points) were not enough to slow down those of Jalen Johnson, who was all over the court in this one. Not only did he finish with 28 points off 13/20 shooting, but he ensnared 13 rebounds as well and dished out five assists. Not far behind was De’Andre Hunter, who came off the bench to add 26 points. In fact, Atlanta’s subs were on fire, like Garrison Mathews, who hit four of seven shots from beyond the arc and finished with 18 points.

Practically everyone benefitted from Young’s vision as an orchestrator of the attack. He registered 15 helpers on the day.

Toronto Raptors

The Raptors are one of the worst away sides in the league this season, with only the lowly New Orleans Pelicans sharing a 1-14 record.

Thursday’s contest in Memphis against the surging Grizzlies did nothing to dispel that issue. To encapsulate how awful the evening was, Toronto scored an impressive 35 first-quarter points, but the defence was so horrid they coughed up 43. Things snowballed from there en route to a dispiriting 155-126 defeat.

Little things made it even worse, such as head coach Darko Rajakovic getting ejected after screaming at a referee for what he believed was a missed foul call. The distasteful icing on the cake was that the Grizzlies, knowing who the opponent was, were draped in their 30^th-anniversary Vancouver uniforms. The Vancouver Grizzlies could only dream of putting up 155 points.

Still, all five started tallied double-digit points: Barett 27, Barnes 26, Gradey Dick 14, Kelly Olynyk 14, and Ochai Agbaji 10.

NBA Prediction: Who Will Win Hawks vs. Raptors?

HAWKS

Away

118

RAPTORS

Home

120

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