Toronto @ New Jersey -3.5
Initial lean says Toronto, both teams coming off one days rest, and Toronto while still having some inconsistencies managed to get a pretty easy much needed win against the Pacers. Minute mixing is going to be a problem and Anthony Parker probably won't play, and he's pretty solid for that kickout corner 3, which makes Bosh in turn more effective. Though they've struggled, think about this, their last 4 road games have been against Lakers, Denver, Utah, and Cleveland. Only thing that could've made it worse was a stop-off at Boston and San Antonio. New Jersey is coming off a bad loss to the knicks, in which they sent the knicks to the charity stripe 35 times, and the knicks answered by hitting 32 of them (91.4 percent). One upside for the Nets is their 3 point shooting which hit 11 of 27 (40.7 percent) in their last game. In fact in their last 5 games the nets have shot the 3 ball at the following percentages:
(40.7 or 11 of 27) vs. New York Knicks
(42.3 or 11 of 26) @ Philadelphia
(50% or 14 or 28) vs. Minnesota
(35% or 7 of 20) vs. Washington
(36.4 or 8 of 22) @ Pheonix
Lets go into this a little bit deeper other than saying they've been taking a hitting more shots in the past 3. In the past 3, these are the following percentages of how many shots are threes.
(27 of 82 or 32.9) vs. New York Knicks
(26 of 73 or 35.6) @ Philadelphia
(28 of 74 or 37.8) vs. Minnesota
(20 of 77 or 25.9) vs. Washington
(22 of 80 or 27.5) @ Pheonix
In the end shooting 40 percent of more of your 3's puts you in a good position. Lets look just a tad deeper though as i want to leave no stone unturned. When the nets last faced the raptors they won a very close game by 2 in overtime. In that game they shot a dismal 7 of 25 or 28 percent. They did hit 51 percent of their fg's and only turned it over 7 times. Whether this was due to protecting the ball or the raptors not being aggressive enough, it's pretty impressive and definitely an advantage over toronto who turned it over 13 times. On the good side for Toronto the Nets had a lot of fouls, Bobby Simmons, Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson, and Vince Carter all had 4, Devin Harris had 5, a whopping 21 amongst the 5 players. Jose Calderon and Bosh has 4 and 5 respectively, but other then that the raptors did alright fouling 10 less times. This game however, will have a very different look, Roko Ukic, Joey Graham, Jamario Moon and Jason Kapono will all see more playing time. Joey Graham and Roko Ukic didn't even play in the game at all. Kapono, one of the best shooters in the game took 2 shots, making one, none of them being 3 pointers. The 12 offensive rebounds and 8 steals to the raptors 3 helped the nets get more shot attempts (103 to 87) and considering the Raptors shot 47.8 percent from 3 point land the turnovers and lack of rebounding is what killed the raps in the end as they were leading the first half by 14 points. The raptors have a lot of energy plays and im almost Reluctant to play this because the minute mixing but Jay Triano seems to be going with what works and Kapono had the most minutes out of everybody so im sure he'll see significant minutes once again.
I just cant shake the fact Toronto has problems rebounding, against Indiana they gave up 18 offensive rebounds, 13 to Cleveland, who by all means is a good rebounding team but it still stands that if you give your opponent more possessions then you, your just asking for them to stay in the game. I honestly think this new look Raptors team with more energy and Kapono even grabbing 8 rebounds, is the answer their looking for and they probably win this game outright. What i've learned from looking into these two teams is the nets are hot shooting 3's right now, Vince Carter is the guy who takes 5 three-pointers a game and makes about one, but against Toronto he always plays just a little bit better, so with his game picked up, and Kapono getting more touches, and Bosh coming out of his funk due to the weight on his shoulders being lightened, i think the over is the way to go. Three pointers stretch out the floor and leave guys one-on-one down low, and the nets will probably send the raps to the charity stripe for an extra 30 possible points. The over is 207 but i see this game getting around 110's for both teams. Last game had 222 before overtime, which each team scored 16 and 18 points respectively.
Long-ass Write-up but for those who just wanna skip to the end and see the pick:
Toronto and Jersey over 207
And as usual, if you don't got nothing productive to say, don't say nothin
And it crossed my mind that I might be over analyzing but they said then again the same could be said about the guy who claimed the earth wasn't flat
Initial lean says Toronto, both teams coming off one days rest, and Toronto while still having some inconsistencies managed to get a pretty easy much needed win against the Pacers. Minute mixing is going to be a problem and Anthony Parker probably won't play, and he's pretty solid for that kickout corner 3, which makes Bosh in turn more effective. Though they've struggled, think about this, their last 4 road games have been against Lakers, Denver, Utah, and Cleveland. Only thing that could've made it worse was a stop-off at Boston and San Antonio. New Jersey is coming off a bad loss to the knicks, in which they sent the knicks to the charity stripe 35 times, and the knicks answered by hitting 32 of them (91.4 percent). One upside for the Nets is their 3 point shooting which hit 11 of 27 (40.7 percent) in their last game. In fact in their last 5 games the nets have shot the 3 ball at the following percentages:
(40.7 or 11 of 27) vs. New York Knicks
(42.3 or 11 of 26) @ Philadelphia
(50% or 14 or 28) vs. Minnesota
(35% or 7 of 20) vs. Washington
(36.4 or 8 of 22) @ Pheonix
Lets go into this a little bit deeper other than saying they've been taking a hitting more shots in the past 3. In the past 3, these are the following percentages of how many shots are threes.
(27 of 82 or 32.9) vs. New York Knicks
(26 of 73 or 35.6) @ Philadelphia
(28 of 74 or 37.8) vs. Minnesota
(20 of 77 or 25.9) vs. Washington
(22 of 80 or 27.5) @ Pheonix
In the end shooting 40 percent of more of your 3's puts you in a good position. Lets look just a tad deeper though as i want to leave no stone unturned. When the nets last faced the raptors they won a very close game by 2 in overtime. In that game they shot a dismal 7 of 25 or 28 percent. They did hit 51 percent of their fg's and only turned it over 7 times. Whether this was due to protecting the ball or the raptors not being aggressive enough, it's pretty impressive and definitely an advantage over toronto who turned it over 13 times. On the good side for Toronto the Nets had a lot of fouls, Bobby Simmons, Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson, and Vince Carter all had 4, Devin Harris had 5, a whopping 21 amongst the 5 players. Jose Calderon and Bosh has 4 and 5 respectively, but other then that the raptors did alright fouling 10 less times. This game however, will have a very different look, Roko Ukic, Joey Graham, Jamario Moon and Jason Kapono will all see more playing time. Joey Graham and Roko Ukic didn't even play in the game at all. Kapono, one of the best shooters in the game took 2 shots, making one, none of them being 3 pointers. The 12 offensive rebounds and 8 steals to the raptors 3 helped the nets get more shot attempts (103 to 87) and considering the Raptors shot 47.8 percent from 3 point land the turnovers and lack of rebounding is what killed the raps in the end as they were leading the first half by 14 points. The raptors have a lot of energy plays and im almost Reluctant to play this because the minute mixing but Jay Triano seems to be going with what works and Kapono had the most minutes out of everybody so im sure he'll see significant minutes once again.
I just cant shake the fact Toronto has problems rebounding, against Indiana they gave up 18 offensive rebounds, 13 to Cleveland, who by all means is a good rebounding team but it still stands that if you give your opponent more possessions then you, your just asking for them to stay in the game. I honestly think this new look Raptors team with more energy and Kapono even grabbing 8 rebounds, is the answer their looking for and they probably win this game outright. What i've learned from looking into these two teams is the nets are hot shooting 3's right now, Vince Carter is the guy who takes 5 three-pointers a game and makes about one, but against Toronto he always plays just a little bit better, so with his game picked up, and Kapono getting more touches, and Bosh coming out of his funk due to the weight on his shoulders being lightened, i think the over is the way to go. Three pointers stretch out the floor and leave guys one-on-one down low, and the nets will probably send the raps to the charity stripe for an extra 30 possible points. The over is 207 but i see this game getting around 110's for both teams. Last game had 222 before overtime, which each team scored 16 and 18 points respectively.
Long-ass Write-up but for those who just wanna skip to the end and see the pick:
Toronto and Jersey over 207
And as usual, if you don't got nothing productive to say, don't say nothin
And it crossed my mind that I might be over analyzing but they said then again the same could be said about the guy who claimed the earth wasn't flat
