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Orlando at Toronto -7.5 (O/U 221.5)
Yes I have stated in the past I don’t buy into the Magic hype, but as sports bettors you must prepare to change your opinion quickly or get left in the dust. Realizing you have made a mistake analyzing a team I believe is a huge part of success and many have trouble admitting it. Well I was WRONG!
This Magic team plays a hard brand of defense, gets to the free throw line quite often and has a little edge to them. All qualities of a winning basketball team. With that said, they head to Toronto on a back-to-back, where quite honestly their record is not good straight up. They’re 1-9 SU, but 5-5 ATS. This tells me they come to play, just come up a little short. The Magic are 5-3 in their last 8, with wins vs Denver, at Philadelphia and at Minnesota, all while winning those five as 4, 5, 2, 5.5 and 9.5 point dogs. They seem to relish this role! In those 8 games, they have given up on average 106 points a game, which is not good news for Toronto shooting 46% in their last 5. When they played twice at Orlando in December, the Raptors shot 40 and 42% from the field. With the Magic winning both.
Toronto is 2-5 ATS in their last 7, with wins vs Detroit, San Antonio and Houston, yikes! They are also 1-6 ATS last 7 on 1 days rest, as well as 8-14 vs teams under .500.
Like I said, Orlando embraces the underdog role, going 18-9-1 as 5-9.5 point underdogs. I’m all over the Magic tonight, lets even sprinkle in a light ML play.
Magic +7.5 (Barstool -108) 1.75 units
Magic ML+245 (Barstool) 0.25 unit
Washington at Portland -1.5 (O/U 236)
Both teams will enter tonight on back-to-backs, with one nearly setting a franchise record in 3’s(23 to be exact) and the other looking for revenge. Fresh on their minds, the Wizards blew a 20 point lead in Washington just 11 days ago vs this Blazer team. Since then have gone 2-3, with losses to Cleveland, Brooklyn and Golden State. As well as losing Kyle Kuzma, with him missing the last 3 games. Ironically they have averaged close to 125 points in the three, while shooting a red hot 58% from the field. This is good news for the Wizards, since Portland ranks 26th defensively in FG%, giving up 52% shooting in their last 5 games.
In their previous match-up Simons hit 9 three pointers, he had a 4 game span of hitting 5, 3, 9 and 5 in those games. Since then he has hit 1, 2, 1 and 2. Yes Lilliard could go off at any time, but without Simons production they will have a hard time staying with Washington tonight. While Washington ranks in the middle of the pack vs 3’s, it will be a point of emphasis to stop Anfernee tonight.
The Blazers are 8-13 ATS in non-conference games, and 1-4-1 at home ATS in their last 6. I still love the Wizards record on 0 days rest of 7-3, they come ready to play. Don’t forget Washington can shoot it from beyond as well, averaging 39.5% from 3 in their last 5. I don’t beleive Portland’s success will continue beyond the arc, which is why I’m all over the Wizards tonight!
Washington +1.5 (BetMGM -110) 1.25 units
Good luck to all those if tailing, lets keep HOT February going!
