Toronto Raptors Looking To Draw Even In Eastern Conference Finals

For the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals it appeared that the Milwaukee Bucks with cruise into the NBA Finals with ease. With the exception of a Game 1 miscue against the Boston Celtics in the previous round the Bucks hadn’t really been tested. The first two games against Toronto didn’t suggest that the Raptors had anything with which they could slow the Bucks’ juggernaut. Milwaukee won and covered the first game 108-100 and dominated Game 2 125-103.

The Raptors came back strong in Game 3 at the Scotiabank Arena led by another spectacular performance from Kawhi Leonard. Behind Leonard’s 36 points, the Raptors fought back a determined Milwaukee effort before ultimately prevailing 118-112 in double overtime. Leonard was one of five Raptors in double figures including Marc Gasol who also added 12 rebounds and 7 assists. Toronto’s cause got a boost due to a rare bad offensive performance by Bucks’ superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo who scored only 12 points in 45 minutes. Antetokounmpo was still a factor and came strong in every other column of the stat sheet with 23 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 blocks and 1 steal. In fact, Milwaukee’s entire team sturggled from the field shooting only 37.3% with a 31.8% performance from three point range.

Toronto now faces another ‘must win’ situation in Game Four. For their purposes, going back to Milwaukee down 3-1 isn’t much better than going into this game down 0-3. NBA teams that trail 3-1 in a best of 7 series come back to win that series less than 5% of the time (11-233 for 4.5%). Unfortunately for the Raptors, it’s unlikely that they’ll see back to back games with a sputtering Bucks’ offense. The same goes for Antetokounmpo. When Milwaukee was surprised by the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Semifinals losing 112-90 they turned things around next time out cruising to a 21 point victory. Not surprising, as the Bucks have been downright monstrous coming off a SU loss all season long with a record of 22-1 SU/19-4 ATS.

It’s not like the Bucks have been in marginal form or have been ‘lucky’ to get to this point. Prior to the Game 3 loss they had gone 10-1 SU/ATS in the playoffs. It’s difficult to see the ‘stars coming into alignment’ for the Raptors once again in Game 4. They would need another horrible offensive game from Antetokounmpo, another horrible offensive game from the rest of the Bucks, another devastating performance from Kawhi Leonard and another strong effort from his supporting cast. They’ll likely get a strong game from Leonard who has arguably been the playoff MVP to this point with a 32.0 PPG average. A strong effort from his teammates is a different matter as they’ve been very inconsistent throughout the postseason.

All Milwaukee has done this year is won games and covered pointspreads. They’ve run away with the unofficial award for ‘most profitable team in the NBA’ earning a total of +19.6 units for their ‘financial backers’. Toronto, on the other hand, has lost -10 units this season–the second most of any playoff team. All season long the Bucks have been consistent and resilient and there’s every reason to expect that they’ll turn in another strong effort off of a loss in Game 4. This is the first time all season that the Raptors have been a NBA pointspread underdog at home but given the Bucks’ ‘back class’ that doesn’t really concern us.

BET MILWAUKEE BUCKS -2.5 OVER TORONTO RAPTORS

For up to the minute NBA playoff betting odds and props, follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter!