Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Toronto Raptors Preview and Prediction (3/16/23)
Moneyline: Raptors -240, Thunder +200
Spread: Raptors -6, Thunder +6
Total: 231
Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Toronto Raptors Betting Odds Breakdown
The Oklahoma City Thunder will be making a trip up to Toronto to take on the Raptors on Thursday.
Toronto is coming into this game as the favorite at -6, and the over/under is sitting at 221 points. Along with that, the moneyline is sitting at -240 for the Raptors and +200 for the Thunder.
Oklahoma City Thunder Preview
Oklahoma City is sitting at 34-35, and it seems like they have done much better this season than what some may have thought they would have done.
The Thunder this season have obviously been led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is having a career year this season. He is averaging about 31 points, five rebounds, and close to six assists per game this season, and he has proven that he will be the star for the Thunder to build around. However, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has missed a couple of games lately due to injury management from an injury he just recently had, so we’ll have to see if that trend continues going into this game against Toronto.
The last time the Thunder met up with the Raptors, they were able to get a pretty dominant victory by the score of 132-113. What Oklahoma City did particularly well against the Raptors in that game was that they were able to dominate on the inside. They out-rebounded them, and they also were able to get 70 points in the paint, which was much more than what Toronto was able to get at 46 points. If they can do that again, it would not be surprising to see them get another dominant win over the Raptors in this one.
Toronto Raptors Preview
Toronto has had a bit of a difficult season so far, with them at 33-36 on the season, which has them sitting at ninth in the eastern conference.
One of the biggest problems that Toronto has faced this season is that for the most part, their defense has not been very good. They are 16th in the league when it comes to defensive efficiency, and it’s not just their defense either. They have not shot the ball well at all, as they have shot the ball at 45.5% on the season, which is 28th in the whole league. Just in total, they have not played well, and they need to make some changes if they want to hold on to a play-in spot. They did shoot the ball pretty well in their last game against the Nuggets, but they have not been nearly consistent enough as they need to be this season.
Going into this game, Toronto really needs to improve on their interior defense. After the poor performance they had in the last game against the Thunder in the paint, something has to change, because they cannot let up 70 points in the paint again. This time though, they will have Jakob Poeltl to help protect the paint, who has been pretty good for the Raptors. Something else that they may want to clean up on is their free throw shooting, because that wasn’t very good either the last time they faced each other. The Raptors ended up leaving 10 points at the line the last time these two teams faced off, and if this game ends up going down to the wire, that just can’t happen, because it could very well cost them the game. However, this is an easy fix,
Winner Prediction: Toronto Raptors -6
Going into this one, it seems like Toronto may have the edge in this one since they are at home.
Even though the Raptors have had their fair amount of inconsistencies this season, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them get the win over the Thunder here.
