Pacers plus 7 1/2 at Raptors
Indiana continues to play well down the stretch winning six of its last seven. The Pacers are in full throttle mode being two games behind Cleveland for the No. 3 playoff spot in the East. Victor Oladipo is a legitimate All-Star and Bojan Bogdanovic and Myles Turner are two of the more underrated players in the conference.
The Pacers’ latest win was a 126-106 home victory against Golden State. That came last night and because of a perceived fatigue factor of playing on back-to-back days the line is higher than it should be. The Pacers, though, were on cruise control Thursday. Only two players logged more than 30 minutes.
Toronto is in an entirely different situation. The Raptors are going to be the No. 1 seed in the East. All that takes to make it official is one victory in their last four games, or one loss by the undermanned Celtics during their last four games.
The Raptors haven’t been playing that well. They are in a fat and happy mood after just buring the Celtics in a showdown matchup two nights ago, winning 96-78. Until that victory, the Raptors had failed to cover in nine straight games. Only twice during their last 10 games have the Raptors beaten an opponent by more than four points during regulation.
(Editor’s note: Stephen Nover just won his NBA Game of the Week with the Nets covering the spread by 17 1/2 points against the Bucks last night and has his NBA Total of the Week heading his Friday card today. If you’re interested in Stephen’s sports service, please message him.)
