Charlotte Hornets vs. Toronto Raptors Spread: Odds, Prediction

Dwight Howard, an old nemesis of the North, returns to the 905 playing some of his best basketball in years for the Charlotte Hornets. The Raptors are shaking their can of bug spray for the Hornets in their first contest in a three-game home stand.

Charlotte Hornets vs. Toronto Raptors

Spread: Raptors -8
Date: November 29, 7:30 PM ET
ACC Centre – Toronto, Ontario

Point Spread and Betting Analysis

The Raptors opened as 8-point favourites on the  NBA odds board.

Toronto hasn’t played since its blowout win over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night. The Raptors are 12-7 straight up, 11-8 against the spread and the under is 11-8 in their 19 games this season.The Hornets are coming off a 20-point loss to the San Antonio Spurs despite being short home favourites in the game. Charlotte is 8-11 SU, 9-9-1 ATS and the over is 9-10 in its contests this campaign.

Buzz City had won three of four and covered in four straight before the setback against San Antonio. Charlotte has covered the spread in each of the last three matchups against Toronto.

Hornets

Things are going as well for the Hornets as the higher-ups had hoped. The club is three games under .500 but there are reasons to still be optimistic about its chances of improving as the season progresses.

First off, the Dwight Howard gamble is paying off early on after the Hornets rolled the dice by trading for him from the Hawks. The former All-Star centre is averaging 15.2 points and 12.8 rebounds – and the Hornets lose their sting when he takes a seat. Charlotte’s net rating is +5.5 with Howard on the floor and -8.3 without him.

Starting wing Nicolas Batum came back only from a preseason elbow injury a few weeks ago and hasn’t been at his best yet. Veteran guard Jeremy Lamb is enjoying a career season and appears to have carved out a niche as a secondary player for the team when the ball isn’t in the hands of All-Star point guard Kemba Walker.

Charlotte’s only played 100 minutes in six games of its preseason projected starting five of Walker, Batum, Howard, Marvin Williams and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. That five-man unit is outscoring opponents by 11.3 points per 100 possesions.

Bad news for Raptor fans: Toronto has been the team Howard has had the most success against in his career. He’s averaging 20.3 points and 11.8 rebounds in 36 games against the Raps.

Raptors

The bench trio of Pascal Siakam, Norman Powell and Jakob Poeltl were the lynchpins of a second quarter rally that saw the Raptors outscore the hosting Hawks 39 to 14. The Dinos won comfortably despite leading scorer DeMar DeRozan scoring just two points on the night. Toronto held Atlanta to a season-low 78 points.

Charlotte Hornets vs. Toronto Raptors Prediction

Raptors 105-Hornets 99