Raptors vs. Wizards prediction and odds for Saturday, March 4
By Josh Yourish
On Thursday, the Toronto Raptors first came down from Canada to America’s capital to take on the Washington Wizards. Washington took that one, 119-108 on the back of 30 points from Kyle Kuzma. Now, they’ll finish off the second of this two-game set between teams in the Eastern Conference play-in picture.
The Raptors are 31-33 and in ninth in the East after that loss, but still have a slight edge on the Wizards who are 30-32 and in 10th. Washington could jump Toronto with another win today, so let’s look at the odds for this one.
Raptors vs. Wizards odds, spread and total
Raptors vs. Wizards odds, spread and total
In that game on Thursday, the players that needed to have a big game for Toronto did. OG Anunoby had 26 points and their new center, Jakob Poeltl finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Even with that, they lost by 11 because of the discrepancy in outside shooting. Washington hit 14/30 (46.7% three-point attempts while Toronto only made 9/33 (27.3%). Though that might not just be another random shooting discrepancy that decides an NBA game.
In an NBA that is all about the three-point line, the Raptors don’t value the most important spot on the floor. They are shooting 33.4% from three this year which is 27th, and even worse than that, they allow their opponents to shoot 37.5% from behind the arc. It’s almost unbelievable that Nick Nurse hasn’t been able to shut down opponents outside shooting with all of the length that the Raptors have on their roster.
I think there will be some shooting regression from Washington in this one, there’s no way that they shoot almost 50% again, but this is a good matchup for the Wizards and I’ll take them as a home underdog.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change