Even as the Toronto Raptors have risen to the top of the NBA standings over the past few years, I don’t think any of us ever really considered them to be legitimate (or even longshot) championship contenders.
But is it finally time that we treat them seriously, now that they’re on their way to their best season in franchise history? At the time of writing, Toronto held a nearly-insurmountable 5-game lead on Boston for top spot in the Atlantic Division (and the Eastern Conference, since the Cavaliers were 11.5 games back) with 11 games remaining in the season. The Raps were also tied with Golden State for the second-best record in the entire NBA, 4 games back of Houston.
All things considered, check out these 2018 NBA championship odds at 3 different betting sites and tell me whether you think the Raptors are getting the respect they deserve.
I don’t think there’s any question that the Raptors aren’t getting the same amount of respect that any other team with a 53-18 record would receive. Especially at Bovada, which actually ranks the title chances of the dysfunctional Cavaliers ahead of Toronto, basically suggesting LeBron will be able to ‘flip the switch’ and dispatch the Raptors with the swat of his hand when the lights come on in the playoffs.
Here’s the good news for bettors: all this disrespect for Toronto has created massive value for the Raptors on the 2018 NBA championship odds. Let me explain a bit further why this lack of confidence in Toronto exists, then persuade you why 2018 is indeed the year of the Toronto Raptors.
Well, maybe it’s because their team name was decided by a fan vote and inspired by Jurassic Park, the kid-friendly hit movie in 1993. Maybe it’s because the purple animal that adorned their jerseys in the early years of the franchise looked more like Barney the Dinosaur than a beast that could actually strike fear in its opponents. Or maybe it’s because, even when the Raptors have had decent teams, they’ve been first-round roadkill in 6 of their 9 forays into post-season play.
Heck, even when the Raptors reached the Eastern Conference finals a couple of years ago, they weren’t close at all to winning a title. The Raps had to scratch and claw their way past a pair of inferior foes in the first 2 rounds, needing 7 games to beat both the Pacers and Heat. And although Toronto extended the Cavaliers to 6 games in the Eastern final, that series never really was close. LeBron James and company outscored the Raptors by an average of nearly 30 points in the 3 games played in Cleveland, then put Toronto out of its misery with a 116-89 rout of the Raps on their home floor in Game 6.
Toronto also continues to fight the uphill battle of being the lone NBA team not located in the United States. The Raptors will never be the lead story on ESPN SportsCenter, and they’re never featured nationally in prime time the same way the Warriors, Rockets, Cavaliers, Celtics and other big-market American teams are. Their lack of visibility inevitably leads to a sense of irrelevance, no matter what their record is.
It might be the best in the entire NBA. Coach Dwyane Casey spreads the minutes around more than any other coach of an elite team, with 11 different Toronto players seeing the floor for an average of at least 16 minutes per contest.
Sacramento and Brooklyn are the only other teams in the league who give their reserves a greater average playing time than the 21 minutes that Casey dishes out. By comparison, the Rockets play their bench players an average of just 16.7 minutes per outing (sixth-most in the NBA), while the Warriors, Cavaliers and Celtics also rank outside of the top 8 in bench usage.
Resting starters and keeping them fresher for the playoffs is just one of the benefits that Toronto is enjoying from a strong bench. Being able to plug in reserves without skipping a beat keeps the Raptors from worrying about getting star players in foul trouble, makes it difficult for opponents to match up defensively, and allows the Raptors to always push the pace to their liking without worrying about fatigue.
“I think we have literally two separate teams,” Toronto star guard Kyle Lowry recently told reporters. “And that’s a great thing to have. We have the bench guys who can come in and play at the starters’ pace. And the starters can play at the bench’s pace. It’s just fun to have a good team that can all mix in with each other. We’re throwing out different looks… it’s always great to have different options.”
Forget for a minute how good the Raptors are, and just look at the rest of the Eastern Conference.
The 2 other division leaders are the Cavaliers and Wizards, who respectively own records of 41-29 and 41-30. If those teams were in the West, they’d be battling with the likes of Utah, New Orleans and Minnesota to just get into the playoffs. In fact, if the Wizards were in the Northwest Division, they’d be just a couple of games ahead of the last-place Nuggets.
The only other teams currently with winning records in the East are the Celtics, Sixers, Pacers, Bucks and Heat. Quick show of hands for anyone who has Philly, Indiana, Milwaukee or Miami going to the NBA Finals? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
The Raptors will own home-floor advantage throughout the conference playoffs, and their 29-6 record at the Air Canada Center is the best home record in the entire NBA. Toronto’s also very capable of winning on the road if it has to, evidenced by its 24-12 record away from home (tied for the second-most road wins in the East.)
Boston and Cleveland are obviously the Raptors’ biggest threats in the Eastern Conference playoffs (although you could arguably throw Washington into the mix as a team that has historically given the Raptors problems). Toronto pounded the Cavaliers by 34 points in early January, the only time the teams have met this season, and gave the Celtics a 20-point beatdown last month in Toronto.
Boston’s also come back to earth after a hot start, going just 22-16 in its last 38 games after opening the year with a 26-7 spurt. And although LeBron has been to 7 straight NBA Finals, that history of success isn’t enough to overcome all the issues that continue to plague this year’s edition of the Cavaliers. Cleveland’s defense ranks 27th in the league in points allowed per game and 24th in field goal percentage allowed, numbers that haven’t improved even after the Cavs blew up their team at the trade deadline. They’re also numbers that spell certain doom against Toronto’s third-ranked attack.
I know what you’ve probably been thinking all along here. So what if the Raptors have a deep and talented roster, or if their path through the Eastern Conference looks easy? The road to an NBA championship in 2018 will inevitably run through Golden State or Houston, a pair of teams that are considered head and shoulders (and torso and maybe even knees) above the rest of the NBA.
But here’s the thing: unless the Dubs or Rockets stunningly go out early in the playoffs, they’re going to meet in the Western Conference finals, a series that will be billed as the “real NBA Finals.” And those teams are going to beat up on each other bigtime.
Even though the Rockets like to slow things down more than people might expect from a high-scoring team, the Warriors play at the fourth-fastest pace in the Association. Assuming that their series goes at least 6 games and possibly 7, that’s going to be a ton of running for both teams. Whoever comes out of that series is going to be worn down physically, not to mention the emotional letdown that could inevitably follow defeating the team that was perceived to be their biggest obstacle en route to an NBA title.
Not that the Raptors wouldn’t have a chance against Golden State or Houston, anyway. Though the Warriors have won 8 straight meetings with Toronto over the last 4 years, 5 of the last 6 were decided by 6 points or less. The last time the teams met, Toronto nearly overcame a 27-point halftime deficit, falling 127-125. And the Raptors swept their season series with Houston this year, pounding the Rockets 129-113 in Texas and then pulling out a 108-105 decision earlier this month.
Just like the records of these teams suggest (remember, the Warriors had the same record as Toronto at the time of writing, while the Rockets were just 4 games ahead), there isn’t as much separating these teams as people think.
It’s natural to be skeptical of the Raptors. With their purple jerseys and dinosaur mascot, they were a laughingstock of the NBA from Day 1. Even though Toronto briefly enjoyed some success with Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady in the late 1990s and early 2000s, this is still a franchise that won exactly 1 playoff series in its first 2 decades of existence.
But these Raptors are different. They’re not the team that got swept out of the first round 3 years ago after finishing first in the Atlantic. They’re not the team that barely got past the Pacers in Round 1 a couple of years ago, and they’re not the team that was unceremoniously swept by the Cavs in last year’s Eastern semifinals.
Toronto’s got the best depth in the NBA, the ability to win both at home and on the road, a ridiculously easy path through the Eastern Conference playoffs and the confidence that they can play with either Golden State or Houston if they meet in the NBA Finals. They’ll still be underdogs against the Warriors or Rockets if that happens, but nowhere near the +1000 that Bovada is currently offering on the Raptors’ 2018 NBA championship odds.
The post Why the Toronto Raptors Could be Destined to Win it All This Year appeared first on GamblingSites.com.
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