Raptors Looking to Turn Things Around Against the Thunder

October 6th, 2023 Live NBA Betting Lines

Basketball betting features one of the best road teams in the league on Friday as the Oklahoma City Thunder visit the Toronto Raptors. The Thunder have been a very good team vs. the NBA betting point spread this season and on the road they have really been profitable.

Basketball betting trends also favor the Thunder in this game. Oklahoma City has won six of the last ten against Toronto and they are 8-2 against the NBA betting line.  Last month the Thunder routed the Raptors 119-99 in basketball betting in Oklahoma City.

Toronto has simply collapsed in recent weeks in basketball betting.  If the Bulls were not so beat up and injured the Raptors might already be out of a playoff spot. They are only a game and a half ahead of Chicago for the last spot in the Eastern Conference.  Things have been so bad for Toronto that head coach Jay Triano has seen enough. He is pulling starters a lot earlier in games and he is not showing patience with his unproductive team. “We’ve got to have a shorter leash with some of our guys,” Triano said, “We’ve got guys who want to come and play and do the right thing, and if guys aren’t doing the right thing I told them before the game: `I’m going to pull you. I’ll put you back in but you’re going to come out and you’re going come out and you’re going to think about it for a bit and you’re going to give somebody else a chance to go in and do the right thing.’ And that’s why we were a bit quicker with some of our substitutions.”  A major problem for Toronto is that they are getting killed on the boards.  In the loss to Portland, the Raptors shot the ball well enough to win but they didn’t rebound. “When we shoot 55 per cent and they shoot 46 per cent, there has to be a discrepancy somewhere and it’s in the number of shots we take compared to them,” said Triano, “They get extra looks because of their offensive rebounding.”

The Thunder could be the basketball betting choice in this game.  Kevin Durant is having a superb season and the Thunder are simply a better team than the Raptors.  Oklahoma City is a playoff team while the Raptors might actually fall out of a spot in the East.

 

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