{"id":11616,"date":"2010-12-17T17:33:40","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T22:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11616"},"modified":"2010-12-17T17:33:40","modified_gmt":"2010-12-17T22:33:40","slug":"nba-betting-preview-new-jersey-nets-at-toronto-raptors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-betting-preview-new-jersey-nets-at-toronto-raptors-11616\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Betting Preview: New Jersey Nets at Toronto Raptors"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Jersey Nets AT Toronto Raptors
\nDecember 17th, 2010 at 7:05 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Toronto -4
\nCurrent Line: Toronto -5
\nOpening Total 198.5
\nCurrent Total: 203
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Toronto -175 \/ New Jersey +155
\nCurrent Moneyilne:\u00a0 Toronto -210 \/ New Jersey +175<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The "feather soft" Bargnani will have to play tough tonight vs Brook Lopez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After losing 8 straight games, New Jersey managed to get things right at home against the Wizards, who still have yet to win a road game this year.\u00a0 While it may have been a relief to end the streak for the Nets, they now find themselves nursing a 7-19 record, the second worst in the Eastern Conference.\u00a0 It’s difficult for Nets’ fans and coaches to point fingers; no one is playing significantly below expectations – they just aren’t a very good team.\u00a0 They do have a bright future with one of the best true centers in the game in Brook Lopez, and they have a fringe all-star quality point guard in Devin Harris, but they clearly need more scorers, as they are the second lowest scoring team in the league with 92.8 points per game.\u00a0 That might be okay if they were a prime time defensive team like the Magic or Celtics, but they still give up 98 points a game.<\/p>\n

Toronto is coming off consecutive losses to Charlotte and Chicago and also sport a record far below .500 of 9-17, and they have lost 7 of their past 10.\u00a0 They have a -3.3 point differential, scoring 102.0 but giving up an unhealthy 105.3.\u00a0 They have the second worst field goal percentage in the NBA (48.7%) and are the third worst in three pointers made with just 5.2 per game.\u00a0 Outside of Bargnani, they don’t have any legitimate second option on offense and have had to make do with Barbosa and Bayless, who both average near 13 a game.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 5 of New Jersey’s last 7 games in Toronto, and the Nets have lost their last 6 games to the Raptors.\u00a0 New Jersey is also 0-5 ATS in their past 5 road games.<\/p>\n

Toronto is 2-5 ATS in their past 7 games.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 5 of Toronto’s past 6 games and OVER in 4 of their past 5 at home.\u00a0 They are 2-4 ATS in their past 6 home games.\u00a0 Toronto is 3-5-1 ATS in their last 9 home games against New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Some key matchups for tonight’s game to pay attention to:
\n
\nBrook Lopez vs. Andrea Bargnani<\/strong><\/p>\n

This brings together two big men with different styles of play.\u00a0 Bargnani does most of his damage from outside and doesn’t look to post up or bang inside very often.\u00a0 Lopez, on the other hand, does most of his scoring down low and will look to bang against the soft Bargnani.\u00a0 Despite his 7’0″ 250 pound frame, Bargnani averages less than 6 rebounds a game, not that Lopez is much better at just ovet 6.\u00a0 The two big men each lead their respective teams in scoring, though, and it will be worth monitoring which gets the upper hand in the scoring, particularly with regard to Brook Lopez who provides most of the Nets’ punch, weak though it may be.
\n
\nDevin Harris vs. Jerryd Bayless<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bayless was recently acquired from the Hornets, and he played for the Blazers before that.\u00a0 This has been his first real chance to shine with Jos\u00e9 Calderon out.\u00a0 He has made the most of it, averaging 13.3 points per game and 4.4 assists in just under 24 minutes a game.\u00a0 Devin Harris has the speed to stay with Bayless and vice versa, so they may be able to cut off penetration, which will lead to a low scoring game.<\/p>\n

Bad though both teams are, nba oddsmakers have set the line in Toronto’s favor, mainly because they are at home and New Jersey is 2-11 on the road.\u00a0 Expect a poorly played, but close, game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Jersey Nets AT Toronto Raptors December 17th, 2010 at 7:05 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Toronto -4 Current Line: Toronto -5 Opening Total 198.5 Current Total: 203 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Toronto -175 \/ New Jersey +155 Current Moneyilne:\u00a0 Toronto -210 \/ New Jersey +175 After losing 8 straight games, New Jersey managed to get things right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[1183,3177,3176,4175,4174,1223,693],"class_list":["post-11616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-andrea-bargnani","tag-brook-lopez","tag-devin-harris","tag-jerryd-bayless","tag-jose-calderon","tag-new-jersey-nets","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11617,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11616\/revisions\/11617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}