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The Brooklyn Nets vs. Toronto Raptors Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs featured a line of Toronto -9.5. BetOnline is offering a generous welcome bonus (max bonus $1000).
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TIME: 4 pm. ET. TV: ESPN
Action and Line Movement
The line hasn't moved much and action was balanced.
What Sagarin Says
Sagarin has this one at Toronto -5.5.
Hot Trends
- Raptors are 7-2-1 ATS in their last 10 games overall.
- Nets are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 after allowing 100 points or more in their previous game.
- In the last two meetings, Brooklyn won one and lost by a single point in another.
Preview
The seventh-seeded Nets are the epitome of the underdog. They are playing without Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, DeAndre Jordan and Spencer Dinwiddie. They fired coach Kenny Atkinson and replaced him with Jacque Vaughn just before the league shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yet they were one of the surprises of the reset, going 5-3 as guard Caris LeVert has flourished. They lost to the Portland Trail Blazers by one point Thursday.
"I think they're obviously one of the big surprises of the restart," Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said. "LeVert is outstanding, they're really playing with a lot of confidence, they're playing fast. Coach Vaughn has obviously got them dialed in. And I think there's a lot of opportunity there for some guys that are pretty good players."
"As a team we got better each and every game," LeVert said. "That's what we wanted to do when we came down here. We knew we had a shot to accomplish to keep the seventh spot and keep momentum going. But the job's still not done. We have a tough series coming up in Toronto."
The Nets have become a prolific 3-point shooting team, scoring 115 points in more in six of their eight games in the bubble.
Seeded No. 2 in the East like last year, when Leonard led them to their first NBA title before leaving for Los Angeles, the Raptors open their first-round series Monday against No. 7 Brooklyn. Toronto rolls into the postseason after going 7-1 in the restart.
Toronto finished the season with five players averaging 15 or more points: Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell and Serge Ibaka. The last team to do that with at least 50 games played for each player was the Buffalo Braves in 1973-74, according to Elias.
(Field Level Media, Associated Press Used for This Report)
- Mary Montgomery, Gambling911.com
