The Raptors continue their Eastern Conference road trip on Tuesday night with a visit to the Orlando Magic, after ending their 3-game losing skid in Chicago. Coming into the season, expectations were low for this Magic squad, after several disappointing seasons, but they’ve been able to surprise teams of late with their strong play, winning seven of their last nine outings. Bookmakers have the line for the game currently at Raptors -6, with an over/under of 221.5, check out William Hill betting to see what they are offering.
For their part, the Raptors enter this game a little banged up, with Norman Powell already out and with CJ Miles and OG Anunoby also having missed time recently, and it remains to be seen who will be available for this game, but Toronto is coming off an impressive performance against the Bulls in which they delivered a 39-point victory with Fred VanVleet leading the way, finding some of his shooting form that had been missing earlier in the season, and Danny Green adding 17 points on perfect 7-7 shooting.
Orlando presents a few interesting matchup problems, with Nikola Vucevic on fire coming into this game, averaging 31.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game over their last three games, on 61.4% shooting from the floor and 50% shooting from three. For the Raptors’ two-headed monster at center in Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas, it’ll be a challenge matching up both with Vucevic’s size as well as his shooting touch from outside. As well, former Raptor Terrence Ross has been keying the Magic’s bench, contributing 15.6 points per game on 48.1% shooting from three-point range and often-times providing the scoring punch to keep the Magic rolling when their starters are on the bench.
The Raptors bench has been struggling of late, and with them still banged up coming into this game, it’ll be interesting to see who gets the matchup on Ross to slow him down. As well, the Raptors will have to hit their own shots and find ways to create buckets as they continue to build their chemistry as the season goes on. With the recent skid, the Raptors hold on the Eastern Conference is now more tenuous, and if they want to hold the first seed as the season goes on, they’ll need to continue to rack up wins against teams lower in the standings, so taking care of business against Orlando will be important, and keeping the minutes low for the Raptors’ starters, if possible, would be a benefit with another game tomorrow night in Atlanta.
After starting the season on MVP-candidate pace, Kyle Lowry’s shooting has slowed of late, struggling over the last 6 games from downtown, and this road trip provides a good opportunity for him to work himself back into form.
OG Anunoby will be missing the game due to a wrist issue.
