Raptors vs. Clippers NBA Betting Odds, Picks: Toronto favoured in second half of back-to-back
It’s a bad news/good news type of situation for the Raptors on Monday night. The bad is they play the second of a back-to-back against the Clippers but the good is that they never had to leave Los Angeles. The Clips are fairly short-handed and 4.5-point underdogs on the NBA odds with a total of 220.5.
Raptors vs. Clippers NBA Betting Odds
This was to be one of the more intriguing games of Toronto’s season simply after acquiring Kawhi Leonard from the Clippers in September for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks, one pick swap, and two second-round picks. It was delayed many weeks due to an NBA investigation into the Clippers for salary-cap circumvention, and boy did the league punish the franchise. Alas, Leonard remains sidelined by the knee injury and misses his homecoming.
Ingram has yet to debut for the Clippers off an Achiiles’ injury but appears to be getting close. Dick is averaging 5.3 points in 13.8 minutes per game. As it turned out, the Clippers badly needed all those draft picks via the deal because the NBA took so many others away from them.
This marks the first of two regular-season meetings with Los Angeles in Toronto on New Year’s night. The Clippers won both last year with Leonard playing in just one. Toronto has dropped four in a row as the road team in the series overall.
NBA Player Odds and Props
For Toronto, take RJ Barrett for at least 20 points at -162. For the Clippers, back Kris Dunn at the great price of +168 for at least 20 points + rebounds + assists.
Toronto Raptors
The Raptors opened their four-game trip on Sunday night with a 131-125 loss at the Lakers as they couldn’t much stop Luka Doncic with his 45 points and 15 rebounds. He made eight of his 12 three-point attempts, all of them contested. It was the Dinos’ eighth straight loss in the series with their last win on Dec. 7, 2022.
Scottie Barnes finished with 29 points in the loss and RJ Barrett 22 points and 10 rebounds. Starting centre Jakub Poeltl was a late scratch with a shoulder injury and probably simply it was the front end of a back-to-back. But he was to be reviewed again Monday. This marks Toronto’s first such B2B of the season. Trayce-Jackson Davis started in his spot.
Los Angeles Clippers
The Clippers have it worse in their back-to-back Monday as they had to travel from San Francisco Sunday after a 124-112 loss – their fifth straight defeat and third in a row by double digits. This is not a good team and very thinned-out with the likes of Bradley Beal and Max Strus also out. Centre Derrick Jones is iffy after suffering a knee injury against the Warriors.
Rui Hachimura led the club with 24 points, but the future will be built around rookie No. 5 overall pick Keaton Wagler. The point guard from Illinois is averaging 13.4 points on just 28.1 per cent from the field along with 4.5 rebounds.
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