The Toronto Raptors have been considered a legitimate Eastern Conference championship threat for most of the season but haven’t exactly lived up to that billing during their playoff series with the Philadelphia 76ers. The good news for them is that they’re heading home to the Air Canada Centre for Game 5 with the series deadlocked at 2-2. Toronto used another big effort from Kawhi Leonard (39 points, 14 rebounds) to pull out a 101-96 Game 4 win in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the risk of overusing a time worn sports metaphor ‘it’s a brand new series’ for the Toronto Raptors. The Game 4 victory on the Sixers’ home court not only even the series but has served to minimize the damage done by Toronto’s Game 2 loss at home. There are now 3 games remaining, two of which are North of the Border. Philadelphia was on the verge to taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the series and had all of the momentum in their favor. Now the Sixers need to answer questions about their inconsistent play during this series. In our Game 4 preview, we talked about Philadelphia’s difficulty at ‘handling success’–following the loss the Sixers are now 12-15 SU\/8-18 ATS this year after a 10+ point win. They’re also 4-8 ATS off of an upset win as an underdog and 22-34 after a SU win in any NBA pointspread<\/a> role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Toronto has been very strong off a loss and are now 9-1 SU\/7-2 ATS after a loss of 10 or more this season. Once again, the Raptors have put Philadelphia in a position where they must prove that they can win on Toronto’s tough home court at the Air Canada Centre. Prior to the Game 2 victory, the Sixers had lost 13 straight in that setting and even with the win are 1-7 SU\/2-6 ATS over the past three years. In general, Philly hasa played well this year coming off a SU loss going 25-8 SU\/21-12 ATS. They haven’t been successful in the role of a road underdog going 11-13 SU\/ATS which has helped produce as substandard pointspread performance on the road going 20-25 ATS. The Raptors were tied for the second best home record in the NBA this season though they lost money at home against the spread (21-24-1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Philadelphia hasn’t really impressed me this season while Toronto at their best has been an excellent team. If the Raptors get a decent contribution from everyone on the team not named ‘Kawhi’ they should win and cover here. With Kawhi Leonard playing like an absolute monster and their poor play in Toronto it’s going to be a tough spot for the Sixers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n