NBA: Boston Celtics VS Toronto Raptors Pick and Predictions 12/05/2022

Game: 9:10 PM ET,  Monday, December 5th, 2022

Venue: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Canada

TV: NBA League Pass

Celtics: 18-5, 1st place Eastern Conference

Raptors: 12-11, 8th place Eastern Conference

BetMGM:  Point Spread:  Raptors -1.5, O/U 227.5

PointsBet: Point Spread:  Raptors -1.5, O/U 228.5

Fanduel: Point Spread:  Raptors -1, O/U 228

Celtics: PF Jayson Tatum, SF Jaylen Brown, C Al Horford, SG Derrick White, PG Marcus Smart

Raptors: SF OG Anunoby, PF Pascal Siakam, C Christian Koloko, SG Scottie Barnes, PG Fred VenVleet

An NBA Eastern Conference battle between two very good teams… on paper.  In reality the Boston Celtics look like the best team in the league this year… while the Toronto Raptors (for all their roster highlights) looks like a very pedestrian team.  The Boston Celtics have been churning and burning… winning game after game until they are now head and shoulders above every team in both conferences.  The Celtics are 18-5… 2 wins better than the Bucks and 3 games better than the best in the West.  And the Celtics are doing it with their very impactful starting Center on the injury list… and their very impactful PF playing out of position at Center.  When the Celtics get Robert Williams III back?.. You will see another gear for what is already the best team in the league based on early season results… The reason is the trio of SF Jayson Tatum, SG Jaylen Brown, and PG Marcus Smart.. Three guys that have grown along with this team into a juggernaut of offense AND defense completely overloading the skill positions of every other team.  In order for the Celtics to lose they need to have a very bad game from one of these three guys.. That is a rarity that is usually the fault of simple exhaustion. The Toronto Raptors have chugged along as better on paper than in reality ever since their 2019 Championship that starred the long gone Kawhi Leonard.  The Raptors have plenty of talent, but they have never addressed the serious imbalance of that roster.  Their best player is Center Pascal Siakam… he should be playing PF.  But since the roster doesn’t and has rarely ever had a true center in the mix (apologies to rookie Christain Koloko) everyone is playing in the wrong spot.  Young player and potential superstar is being greatly underserved as a utility player that the team plugs into any spot.. Sometimes SG, sometimes PF, sometimes SF… The guy is so multi-talented that maybe he should be playing the point… but we will never know because the team is committed to their third star in PG Fred Van Vleet at that spot.  Fred is really good… It’s not a problem to commit to him… but the unbalance is clear.  Fred must play the PG spot, Pascal must play out of position… and Scottie has no real position.  To make matters worse the roster has 4 guys who would or should play at PF anywhere else… but here rotate in and out of Center in futile attempts to get Pascal back to his original position.  The best GM in the league has painted himself into a corner by overloading his roster with athletic projects that would or should play power forward and nothing else.  The time for a very big trade is now or never.

The Boston Celtics snapped a 5-game winning streak with an exhaustive loss to the Miami Heat 120-116 in overtime. In that game SG Jaylen Brown scored 37 points, but did not get a lot of help from Tatum and Smart in crunch time.  Tatum was good with 14 points and 12 rebounds.. Smart was good with 18 points and 9 assists… but neither powered through the long slog of a road game after a 5-game winning streak. Horford was invisible and Malcolm Brogdon was invisible… not a recipe for winning.  The Celtics defense was its usual stout self… yet that only served to add an overtime period before taking the L.

The Toronto Raptors won their last game over the Orlando Magic 121-108… It helped to keep their heads above the water of .500. In the win SF OG Anunoby had 32 points, while C/PF Pascal Siakam landed a statline of 26, 8, 10.  Scottie Barnes contributed 17, 14, 4.  It is not hard to beat the Orlando Magic.  Everyone does.  It did however snap a 2-game losing streak to the Pelicans and Nets.  The Raptors need very badly to play with a consistency that they have not yet found this season… they will not find it against the Celtics.

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BOS: 18-5, 14-9 ATS, 14-8-1 O/U, 7-3 on the road.

TOR: 12-11, 13-10 ATS, 12-11 O/U, 9-2 in home games.

The Celtics are 1st in the league in scoring with 121.6 points per game, 26th in rebounds with 41.9 per game, 2nd in AST/TO ratio with 2.0, and 13th in blocks per game with 5.0.

The Raptors are 19th in scoring with 110.9 points per game, 12th in rebounds with 43.7 per game, 10th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8, and 8th in blocked shots with 5.4 per game.

Our prediction for Monday, December 5th is….  Celtics 128 - Raptors 111

Bet on the Celtics.  If the Celtics play well they should be able to yawn against the Raptors who have little depth outside of the starting 5.

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Boston is 10-24 O/U as a road favorite of 6 pts or less the last 3 seasons.

The Raptors are 11-17 ATS as a home underdog the last 3 seasons.

Celtics: SF/ PF Jayson Tatum.  Coming off a quiet game in Miami… and immediately following a Nets game where he will play head to head against Kevin Durant?... This game is looking more and more like a 40 point game for Jayson… bottled up and ready he will devastate Anunoby and his shaky defense.  He will power to the free throw line again and again.

Raptors: SF/SG Scottie Barnes.  Watch closely and see how this multi-talented player is being overlooked for Siakam and VanVleet.  This is the core of what is not working in Toronto.  They have all the talent, but it has to start with putting Scottie in the best possible spot and filling in around him.. Instead of having Scottie defer to guys who got rings 3 seasons ago. 

Celtics: Joe “free job” Mazzula

Raptors: Nick “remember my hat?” Nurse