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Knicks at Raptors NBA Opening Lines, Score Prediction for Week 7 - 2024/25 Season

Knicks at Raptors NBA Opening Lines, Score Prediction for Week 7 – 2024/25 Season

Written by on December 9, 2024

Featured Sports Betting Odds, NBA News and Rumors

For whatever reason, just one NBA game on Monday and it looks like a mismatch as the New York Knicks, one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams, visits one of its worst in the Toronto Raptors.

The Knicks will be favored on the NBA odds but by how much depends on one key injury.

Bucks at Celtics NBA Opening Lines Subject to Change: TBA (on Karl-Anthony Towns)
Expert Prediction: Knicks 117, Raptors 112
 

Why Bet on New York?

The Knicks played without All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns on Friday and were stunned at home by Detroit 120-111 to see a four-game winning streak snapped. The Pistons led by 17 points in the third quarter before the Knicks outscored them over 27-14 over the final 10 minutes of the period to cut the lead 89-85. New York made it a two-point game in the opening minute of the fourth quarter on Ariel Hukporti’s dunk. The Pistons responded with a 12-2 run and took advantage of four turnovers by New York to increase the lead to 103-89 with 7:55 left in regulation and that was that.

Jalen Brunson

All-Star guard Brunson was in some question for New York but he played an had 31 points, 10 assists and four rebounds. It was his third 30-point, 10-assist double-double of the season. Over his last 10 contests, Brunson is averaging 26.8 points, 8.7 assists and 3.4 three-pointers per game while shooting a sizzling 51.5 percent from beyond the arc. Now he faces a Toronto team that ranks 25th in the NBA in points allowed per game (117.4).

Mikal Bridges

Bridges added 20 points and he has scored at last 19 points in all of his past four outings since the calendar turned to December, a span in which the 28-year-old wing is averaging 22.3 points, 4.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds, 3.5 three-pointers per game while shooting 41.2 percent from downtown. He is leading the NBA in minutes per game (38.2).

Karl-Anthony Towns

Towns sat out with right patellar tendinopathy and is day-to-day and backup point guard Cameron Payne was out with a left elbow effusion and he’s day-to-day. The Knicks were outrebounded 43-31 without Towns.

“When you’re shorthanded, your margin of error is a lot tighter. You gotta play with great intensity on every possession,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “You’re not gonna replace KAT individually, and Cam [Payne] but collectively we can. That’s where we have to be better.”

Jericho Sims started Friday for Towns but the big beneficiary was big man Precious Achiuwa off the bench with six points, four assists and 10 rebounds. It was just Achiuwa’s second regular-season appearance after the 25-year-old big man missed the first 21 games of the year with a hamstring injury. Rookie Ariel Hukporti also scored nine points in 15 minutes, including two alley-oop dunks from Jalen Brunson.

Tom Thibodeau

“We were just searching. We wanted energy and you have to hustle,” Thibodeau said. “Precious has been out a long time, so there’s a lot of rust. But I liked his reaction to the ball, he was the one guy that would get to the ball. But his timing’s not quite there yet, but each day, it’ll get better. So he gave us some good energy.”

The Knicks were trailing by seven points with 70 seconds to play when Josh Hart was slapped with an automatic ejection for his second technical foul of the game for his interactions with the referees.

Thibodeau noted after the loss that Hart “plays on emotion, which is great,” before adding that “there’s a fine line” and we “just can’t have that in the fourth quarter.”

The Knicks have been really sharing the ball this with at least 30 assists in 10 games, which ranks third in NBA behind the Hawks (12) and Grizzlies (11). All Knick starters have scored in double figures together 10 times this season, which leads the league.

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Bucks at Celtics Props provided by MyBookie

 

Why Bet on Toronto?

The Raptors lost their second game in a row Saturday, 125-118 at home vs. Dallas. Toronto trailed by 24 before cutting the gap to five points, 120-115, on Gradey Dick’s 3 with 1:35 left in the fourth. But reviews of a goaltending call and a defensive foul went against the Raptors and that was that.

Jakob Poeltl

Center Poeltl returned after missing Thursday’s loss to the Thunder because of illness and had 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. . He finished as the Raptors’ second-leading scorer behind Gradey Dick (27), and Poeltl’s seven assists were a season high. Over his last 10 outings, Poeltl has averaged 18.0 points on 63.8 percent shooting and 11.5 rebounds. Thanks in large part to Poeltl, Toronto ranks fourth in rebounds per game (46.4) and second in offensive boards (13.4).

Scottie Barnes

Barnes had 19 points, a career-high 14 assists and eight rebounds – two boards shy from registering his second triple-double of the 2024-25 regular season. Since returning from a 11-game absence due to a right orbital fracture, Barnes has averaged 21.8 points, 9.1 rebounds and 8.6 assists per game.

RJ Barrett

Barrett amassed 18 points (8-of-16 FGs), four rebounds and four assists. And after shooting 31.3% from the field in Thursday’s loss to the Thunder, he was back at 50% for the fifth time in six games. Kelly Olynyk played 14 minutes after missing the first 23 games because of a sprained back. Olynyk scored 13 points.

Jonathan Mogbo

Perhaps the most encouraging development on the night for the Raptors was the continued strong play of Mogbo. The rookie finished with eight points, seven rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots while making two triples in the same game for the first time in his career, needing only two attempts.

“Jonathan’s super versatile. He can guard one through five,” said Olynyk. “ … So that’s really exciting, and he can rebound, he can run, he can put the ball on the floor and handle it a little bit. He made some shots today. As he continues to develop that three-point shot, it’s going to be, obviously, big for him and for us, but he has that athletic ability around the rim.

The Raptors had a whopping 37 assists in the loss and have now recorded 20-or-more assists in all 24 games played this season and are one of nine teams to do so in every game played so far. The Raptors are tied for fourth in the NBA in total assists.

Kelly Olynyk

With Olynyk returning on Saturday, the only projected rotation piece missing is Bruce Brown, who should be back any time after having off-season knee surgery. Among the starters, only Immanuel Quickley remains out as he recovers from a torn ligament in his elbow. There is no timeline on his injury.

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How to Bet Bucks at Celtics NBA Opening Lines

When: Monday, 7:30 PM ET
Where: Scotiabank Arena
TV: NBA TV
Stream: NBA.com, NBA TV app
Radio: Tunein.com

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Knicks vs Raptors Series History

First of four meetings. New York swept all four last season in high-scoring games. They last played on March 27 in Toronto and the Knicks rolled 145-101. Miles McBride matched a career-high with 29 points, Jalen Brunson had 26 and New York never trailed. Gradey Dick led the Raptors with 23 points. At the time, it was their biggest home defeat in franchise history, eclipsing a 41-point loss to New Orleans also last season.

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Previous Betting News | MyBookie News Archive

2021 Raptors vs Knicks
 

There is matinee basketball around the NBA on Saturday as the Toronto Raptors visit the New York Knicks on national television with both teams jockeying for potential playoff positioning in the Eastern Conference. The red-hot Knicks will be favored on the NBA odds.

How to Bet Raptors at Knicks NBA Odds & TV Info

  • When: Saturday, 1 PM ET
  • Where: Madison Square Garden
  • TV: ESPN
  • Stream: ESPN app
  • Radio:com

Last Meeting

The teams have split two meetings, and this wraps up the season series. The last met on April 11 also in New York and the Knicks won 102-96 despite blowing an 18-point lead. The Raptors used a 37-15 run to lead by four with seven minutes left, but RJ Barrett hit a three-pointer with the Knicks leading by one with 35 seconds to play to essentially clinch it. The Knicks were led by 26 points from Julius Randle and Barrett had 19. New York had lost nine straight games in the series. Gary Trent Jr. led Toronto with 23 points, while Chris Boucher had 17 points and 14 rebounds.

Why Bet on Toronto? | NBA Betting Lines

Toronto won its fourth in a row Wednesday, 114-103 over the short-handed Nets. Playing at close to full strength for the first time in weeks with the return of veteran guards Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet, Toronto made 13 of 24 shots (54%) and outscored the Nets 36-23 in the third quarter.

Lowry, who had been resting for 10 days, had 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists. VanVleet had 17 points, five assists, three rebounds and a steal across 35 minutes. VanVleet had appeared in only one of the past nine games for Toronto while dealing with a hip injury and a one-game suspension.

Lowry had been resting for 10 days but the Raptors brought back all the regulars tonight and got a big win over the Nets. The Raptors are only a 1/2 game back of the Wizards for the No. 10 seed and a shot at a play-in series, so it will be interesting to see if they keep playing the regular in hopes of making a playoff run.

Khem Birch started at center and had eight points, seven rebounds, three assists and a block in 24 minutes. Chris Boucher went down with a left knee injury and will have an MRI so Birch could be looking at a bigger workload going forward.

Boucher suffered the injury early in the fourth quarter when Brooklyn forward Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot landed on Boucher’s foot while the two were competing for a rebound under the Raptors’ net. Throughout those 59 games, Boucher was enjoying the best season of his career. He was averaging career-highs across the board with 13.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 1.1 assists per game.

A Toronto win Saturday would secure the team’s sixth straight season-series win over New York. The last time the Dinos lost the season series outright vs. the Knicks was in the 2010-11 season.

Why Bet on New York? | NBA Betting Lines

No team is hotter in the NBA than the Knicks, who won their eighth in a row Wednesday, 137-127 in overtime against visiting Atlanta. Julius Randle’s driving layup with eight seconds left in regulation gave New York a 122-119 lead, but Bogdan Bogdanovic hit a 3-pointer with 6.2 seconds left to send the game into overtime. The Knicks scored the first 10 points of the extra session.

Randle hit 11-of-21 shots, 6-of-8 3-pointers and 12-of-13 free throws for 40 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. It was Randle’s second 40-point game over his last four played. Randle also is just the 5th player in Knicks history to average at least 30 points per game during a win streak of 8+ games.

Nerlens Noel took a shot to the mouth and needed stitches but was able to return and finish with nine points, 12 rebounds, three assists and three blocks in 35 minutes. He’s had at least two blocks in 10 straight games and has grabbed double-digit boards in four of his last six.

Rookie Immanuel Quickley and fellow guard Derrick Rose both had 20 points. Elfrid Payton started the game but played just 17 minutes, while Tom Thibodeau turned to Rose and Quickley for more minutes.

Taj Gibson suffered a right eyelid injury on Wednesday and played just nine minutes for four points and three rebounds.  It’s being called a laceration so he’ll be questionable for Saturday’s game. Guard Alec Burks missed his fourth straight game in COVID protocols. He’s averaging 12.6 points this season and probably won’t play Saturday.

The last time the Knicks won eight straight was in 2014, when Randle was in his one-and-done season at Kentucky. The Knicks’ winning streak of eight exceeds the total number of games the Yankees have won so far this season. If the season were to end today, that means the Knicks would be hosting a first-round playoff series.

This is the first time that the Knicks are 4th or higher in the Eastern Conference standings at least 50 games into a season since finishing the 2012-13 season as the 2nd seed. “Fourth place sounds good, but we’re not done yet,” Randle said. “We have a long way to go.”

Expert NBA Prediction

Knicks 108, Raptors 103

 
 

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