The NBA betting public have taken note of Orlando in 2008 but can the Magic overcome Toronto in the first round?
Orlando’s reward for winning the Southeast Division and earning the No. 3 seed in the playoffs was to get an NBA playoff matchup with a team that has their number.
Toronto has beaten the Magic nine of 13 tries and dominated them against the spread on the NBA betting lines since 2003 with a 13-5 mark. So much for securing a favorable first-round matchup, and welcome to basketball betting parity this season.
Both teams averaged more than 100 PPG on the season, while Orlando averaged 104 PPG both at home and on the road. Their three-point accuracy is the main reason for it.
The Magic led the league in triples made with 9.8 per game and they showed how explosive they can be in raining nine of them in the first quarter alone of Game 1. Starters Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, Maurice Evans and Jameer Nelson look for the three-ball and Keyon Dooling and Keith Bogans do the same off the bench.
If they can raise the bar a bit on their 27th-ranked free-throw percentage (with Superman Dwight Howard largely to blame for that poor showing), they can handle the Raptors and some other potential playoff foes in the East.
But while Howard’s streakiness at the charity stripe is a negative, everything else the young stud brings to the game is positive. He led the league in rebounding by a mile (14.2 per game), although his blocks per game dipped a bit this season. Apparently slashing forwards and guards got the idea they would get rejected in the paint and stopped going there.
Things can get shaky in the Magic kingdom when Howard gets into foul trouble, however. Adonal Foyle is the primary backup and could play a key role in the first round if Rashard Lewis struggles in keeping Raptor star Chris Bosh in check.
Orlando was solid against the number late in the season, running up a 7-2 ATS mark in nine games. And they own a key edge in one basketball handicapping stat that some experts use in determining playoff line value – field goal percentage differential.
The Magic have a +2.8 PPG advantage in this statistic, according to the NBA betting matchups database at sportsinteraction.com. It factors in the difference in their offensive efficiency versus the efficiency they allow defensively. The higher the positive differential, the better for the bettor.
This is a team that can catch fire from behind the arc and win two series this year.
