NBA Betting Odds: Toronto Raptors at Charlotte Bobcats

Added on Dec 14, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

A pair of Eastern Conference teams with losing records meet in Tuesday night NBA basketball as the Toronto Raptors take on the Charlotte Bobcats. Toronto is 9-15 overall which has them in third place in the Atlantic Division but they’ve got the Philadelphia 76ers right in their rear view mirror. Charlotte is in 4th place in the Southeast Division with a 8-15 record.

Toronto Raptors at Charlotte Bobcats
December 14, 2010 4:05 PM Pacific

Here’s how the inexperienced NBA handicapper typically approaches a game like this–he’ll look at the records which are similarly disappointing and conclude that these are ‘bad’ teams. He’ll then conclude that in a matchup of ‘bad’ teams that the home team automatically has an edge in a rare ‘winnable’ game. Sometimes that’s the correct approach and sometimes games work out that way but it is a drastic oversimplification of this matchup. The more experience handicapper examines both teams trying to find overall and situational tendencies that may not be apparent from the W/L record.

Toronto is a team struggling to find an identity in the post Chris Bosh era but despite their losing record they’ve been competitive in most situations–and especially so on the road and as an underdog. Raptors are 10-4 ATS when getting points and 7-4 ATS on the road. Overall they’re 10-5-1 ATS in their last 16 games. Charlotte, meanwhile, is 6-9 ATS in their last 15 games. Another insight into the teams can be found in their record against other losing teams–the Raptors are 5-3 SU/ATS against sub .500 teams while Charlotte is 5-7 SU/4-8 ATS against teams with losing records. Charlotte won by 5 at Toronto on November 10 and there’s nothing to suggest that the Raptors can’t return the favor here. They’ve covered 7 of the last 11 games at Charlotte and we’ll gladly take the points with them here.

Bet Toronto Raptors +4′ over Charlotte Bobcats