NBA Game Of The Week: Celtics v Raptors – Stats, Odds, Insights, & Predictions

Our upcoming NBA game of the week sees two of the most talented Eastern Conference teams face off.

TORONTO RAPTORS (12-3) $2.05 @ BOSTON CELTICS (8-6) $1.80

AEDT: Saturday, Nov. 17, 11am

EDT: Friday, Nov. 16, 7pm. Boston, MA. TD Garden (19,580)

To the uninitiated, this game may not look like Game of the Week material. You see one team sitting first in the Eastern Conference, with a 12-3 record, against an opponent who is barely staying above .500.

But, when looking at any sport match, we mustn’t look at it through a vacuum. The Celtics are having a tough start to the season. The offence has only shown glimpses of what many people expected heading into the season. Re-integrating Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward into the offence has proven more difficult than expected.

Kyrie has bounced back with some big performances lately, but it always seems to come at the cost of Jayson Tatum getting shots up.

That’s probably to be expected though. There are only so many shots to go around on the deepest squad in the NBA.

The Celtics may have to experiment with Gordon Hayward being a sixth man off the bench to accelerate the chemistry of the team.

With all this said, each starter is dealing with a form slump, especially shooting from three. This team may just need to play hard and stay above .500 until the form improves for a mid to late season run.

The Raptors, on the other hand, are playing about as well as they could be right now. They’re tied with the Warriors for the best win percentage in the NBA. They have one of the most efficient offensive trios in Kyle Lowry, Danny Green, and Kawhi Leonard. Remarkably, those three maintain their effectiveness regardless of who is playing in the frontcourt with them.

Kyle Lowry is having an MVP calibre season and would be considered by many to be the best point guard in the East right now, edging out his opponent in this game, Kyrie Irving.

That will be the key matchup in this one, along with the battle on the wings between Kawhi Leonard and Jayson Tatum.

If Toronto are to win this game away from home, they will need to match the Celtics defence. Jonas Valančiūnas must bully Al Horford out of the game in the post, and Kawhi will need to stick to Tatum when the young Celtic tries his isolation ball (if he does).

For the Celtics the offence must carry its weight, like it did in the upset to the Bucks. Kyrie Irving will need to be his clutch self in the fourth, in what will likely be a close finish. The Celtics are top 5 in the league in creating wide open threes, but bottom 10 in the league in making wide open threes. They need to make those open shots if they’re to beat the Raptors who have been highly productive on offence and defence.

Our Tip

The Celtics remain the best perimeter defence in the league. All it takes for them to win this is to hit some open threes with a home crowd cheering them on, and they’ll have a good chance at beating anyone.

Boston -1.5 @ $1.92

*All odds provided by Neds and are subject to change