Toronto (31-32 SU, 31-32 ATS) travels to Washington to take on the Wizards (29-32 SU, 29-29-3 ATS) on Thursday at 7:10pmET from Capital One Arena.
Both teams are fighting for playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. Toronto is currently in ninth place, while Washington is in 10th, which means if the season ended today, both squads would be in the play-in games.
This is the first meeting of the season between these teams. Last year, Toronto took three of four and covered in three of four games.
Toronto has as much talent as anybody in the Eastern Conference, but here they are, under .500 and struggling to make the playoffs. They have won three of their last four games since coming off the All-Star break, but the only loss came at the hands of the only quality team they played in Cleveland (118-93). On Tuesday, they beat the Bulls 104-98 as a 3.5-point favorite at home. Pascal Siakam scored 20 points and grabbed eight boards, while Gary Trent Jr. produced 19 points off the bench and O.G. Anunoby added 17. The Raptors were ice cold in the first half, scoring just 44 points and wound up shooting just 41% from the field. Toronto won the game on the boards (+12) despite allowing the Bulls to shoot 52% from the field. Chicago also committed 19 turnovers.
The Raptors added some bench help when they recently picked up veteran guard Will Barton off of waivers. Barton played for the Wizards this sea son, averaging just 7.7 points on 38.7% shooting. Last season, he averaged 14.7 points on 43.8% (36.5% 3pt) shooting for Denver. Siakam leads the Raptors with 25.2 points per game with 7.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists on 47.7% shooting (34.5%). They also picked up center Jakob Poeltl before the trade deadline from San Antonio and he's averaged 14.1 points and 8.9 rebounds with 2.0 blocks in seven games.
On the season, Toronto is shooting just 45.3% from the field (28th) and 33.5% from long range (27th). They allow 111.9 points per game (8th), 48.9% from the field (27th) and 37.4% from three-point range (28th).
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