WE look to ring in the new week in style as we take a look at the best of the Sunday night slate in the NBA.
Here’s our feature game and best bet for today:
Toronto Raptors @ Golden State Warriors
The Toronto Raptors (8-9) continue their west coast road trip as they take on the best team in the NBA, Golden State Warriors (14-2).
The Raptors have been a tough team to gauge this season; their results very much reflective of the ceiling and floor of this team in such a small sample size. The team has rated as a top 10 offence over the past fortnight, but in doing so has let their defence slump to a league-worst rating in that time.
The visitors are going to have a tough time bettering that rating against a potent and well-balanced Warriors offence that has the ability to expose mismatches on the floor at any given time.
The Raptors has always had its weakness under Nick Nurse, and that is allowing teams to generate open looks from corner three. The concern of late is that they’ve not only been vulnerable to perimeter shooting but have also been allowing teams to finish efficiently at the rim. That inside-outside scoring that teams are managing against Toronto is a big reason why we’ve had such a drastic drop-off in defensive efficiency from this team and it’s something that could be of paramount concern against this Warriors offence.
As if anything else needs to be stacked against them, this also figures to be a tough spot for Toronto, who come into this having played six of their last seven games on the road and will play their third game in four nights here.
My numbers project the Warriors to come out around 12-point winners and we’ve already seen the market move in that direction since opening. This one may well be at double-digits by tip-off.
Our best bet: Golden State Warriors -9.0 $1.87 at PlayUp
