The Hornets are heading north to face the Raptors in their last matchup of the season. Although both teams are out of playoff contention, Toronto has experienced a surprising upswing. Winning eight of their thirteen games in March, this surge is a much-needed boost for a team that has struggled. Even though the stakes are low, this matchup should still provide an entertaining contest between these two young teams.
LaMelo Ball Out
Josh Okogie Out
Chris Boucher Questionable
Ochai Agbaji Out
Gradey Dick Out
RJ Barrett Out
Brandon Ingram Out
This game isn’t going to influence the playoffs, but it could have some influence on the NBA draft. With the Hornets already at the bottom of the NBA standings, we’ve seen Toronto pick up some surprising wins lately. Winning their last couple of games while fun has bumped them to 7th in the draft lottery. With only three games separating them from the 5th best odds, we could see this game turn into a tanking battle.
The Raptors are already down quite a few hands as the injury bug has been rough on the team all year. However, they still have a fun starting lineup with Barnes, Quickley, and Poeltl. They should match up well against the Hornets without LaMelo. If there is any team that’s had worse injury luck this year, it has to be the Hornets. With their season starting off optimistic, it quickly slid into another tanking year, with their place in the draft lottery already well established, this game is entirely for spectacle.
The matchup should be interesting though. The Hornets actually have a solid team to take on the Raptors. Bridges matchups up well against Barnes, Williams to Poeltl, and Green against Quickley. The rest of the supporting cast isn’t quite as solid, but tonight is the type game we see role players elevate their game.
Overall, there is a reason the Raptors are so favored tonight. Charlotte has been one of the worst traveling teams in the league this year, while Toronto has found most of its success at home. This should be an easy take on the Raptors as they snag another win at home.
Money line: CHA (+180) / TOR (-218)
Total Points: 214.5
Spread: +5.5 CHA (-110) / -5.5 TOR (-110)
Toronto simply has the deeper team and home court advantage. With Ball out tonight, Toronto will have the scoring advantage with Barnes and Quickley. Especially considering how Bridges has been shooting for Charlotte lately, the Hornets look like they’re packing it in. Even with -218 odds, this looks like a solid money line.
With such a low over/under, the over is looking extremely tempting. Neither of these teams is particularly set up to play defense, and with some scoring on both teams, this game could turn into a foot race. The Hornets have been scoring at least 100 points in most games, while the Raptors have been around the 110 mark. This might be a close one, but I expect more offense than defense tonight, which should elevate the final scores.
Toronto is the easy pick. They’ve seen more success over the last few weeks for a reason, and their wins have normally come with some nice margins. This being a late-season game with low stakes, I don’t see the Hornets putting up much of a fight.
Williams has been looking really strong lately! While he’s still finding his groove when it comes to scoring, tonight's matchup against the skilled defensive center, Poeltl, might make it a bit tricky for him to find easy opportunities at the rim.
Scottie Barnes has been very consistent on the boards lately. He has only had 2 games in the entire month of March where he’s been under 5 rebounds. Going against an injured Hornets team without Ball should lead to plenty of opportunities for Barnes to snag some boards.
Quickley has been a big part of this late-season surge, especially with Toronto still dealing with injuries. He’s hit 3 three made threes in the last two games, and has been averaging 2.9 made threes in March, so this line is looking solid.
Even though we’ve seen a lot of production out of Bridges this month, it’s begun to tail off over the last two weeks. We’ve seen his scoring drop to around 15 points on average for the last 5 games as his shooting percentages have dropped. Without Ball out their pull in the defense, Bridges may struggle to get the points needed to hit this line.