NBA: Toronto Raptors VS Indiana Pacers Pick and Predictions 11/12/2022

Game: 7:10 PM ET,  Saturday, November 12th, 2022

Venue:  Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana

Where to Watch: NBA League Pass

Raptors: 7-5, 5th place Eastern Conference

Pacers: 5-6, 8th place Eastern Conference

DraftKings:  Point Spread: Pacers -1.5; O/U 230

PointsBet: Point Spread: Pacers -1.5; O/U 229

Fanduel: Point Spread: Pacers -1.5; O/U 239.5

Raptors: SF OG Anunoby, PF Scottie Barnes, C Christian Koloko, PG Fred Van Vleet, SG Gary Trent Jr

Pacers: SF Buddy Hield, PF Jalen Smith, C Myles Turner, PG Tyrese Haliburton, SG Andrew Nembhard

An Eastern Conference NBA matchup between an underperforming good team.. And an over performing bad team.  Both squads are horribly unbalanced and in desperate need of a trade to create both balance and a winning culture.  The Toronto Raptors still have lots of remnants of their 2019 NBA Championship that they won with the assassin-like single year performance of SF Kawhi Leonard.  The Raptors dodged a huge bullet by not being able to convince Kawhi to stay as Kawhi’s ability to stay on the court has completely left him.  Still the team did what retooling it could and have landed with a middle of the pack team that has no true Center anywhere on the roster and are playing PF Pascal Siakam there wasting his 2-way dominance at the Power Forward spot.  The bright spot is that the team got to draft Scottie Barnes a year ago.  Scottie is special… he is multi-skilled and can get run at either forward or either guard spot and excel at offense and defense.  Scottie is someone who can be and should be built around… But what exactly are they waiting for?  The Indiana Pacers have been waffling between hopeless and mostly hopeless the last several years of NBA existence.  They find themselves in 8th place after the first 12 games… In the best season to lose games for the draft lottery since Lebron was obvious intended #1 pick.. The Pacers can't even get that right.  The Pacers problem is that they have one really good young player in PG Tyrese Haliburton whom they practically stole from the Sacramento Kings last season.  The rest of the roster needs to be torn down and rebuilt from the foundation.  Center Myles Turner is openly courting the Lakers to “come and get him”... SF Buddy Hield is really a 2-guard… and while he is a good shooter his defense either needs some work or some effort… most likely both.  An obvious thing noticed when looking at both these teams is that Scottie Barnes of the Raptors and Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers would be a great duo for any team… They are both amazing, young two-way players.  If either of these teams could pull off a trade to pair these guys they would be nearly set for the next decade.

The Toronto Raptors beat the Houston Rockets in their last game 116 - 109. It was an easy win over a tanking team… but also a loss ATS.  The spread was a bog 10.5… Double digit NBA spreads are usually a glaring sign to bet the cover instead of the blow-out but still these spreads keep popping up.  The Raptors were missing PF/C Khem Birch, PF/C Precious Achiuwa, and PF/C Pascal Siakim and will be for a while more… How did they get by while missing 3 different PF/C type players?… Oh because they have plenty more.  A huge amount of the Raptors roster is wasted on power forwards who can be used at Center, yet are mostly undersized at either spot.  Anyway… SF OG Anunoby had 27 points, PG Fred VanVleet had 32 points and Scottie Barnes had 13 pts, 8 rbs, 5 asts… while playing tough defense. The Raptors have now won 2 of their last 3 games, yet are just 1-2 ATS during that stretch.  The injury absences will persist but shouldn’t cause much trouble against a thin team like Indiana.

The Indiana Pacers are in 8th place in the Eastern Conference and that is way too high for them to comfortably be in the Tankathon.  The trick to this season is they desperately want to continue growing Halliburton and Nembhard as the backcourt of the future, while not falling out of the DRaft Lottery race.  More losses means more ping pong balls… but it might also stunt the growth of two good young players?... Whatever should they do?  Oh… They should keep playing Myles Turner at Center.  That is a guy that truly does not want to be there… They should also keep playing Buddy Hield at SF… His defense isn’t good enough for any starting unit in the league no matter how good of a shooter he is… He would fit in fine with the Lakers.  The Pacers lost their last game to the Denver Nuggets but have won 2 of their last 3 games.  The Pacers leading scorer is Tyler Haliburton at 21.6 points per game, Tyler also leads the team in assists (9.9) and steals (1.8).  Tyler is the future of this squad, but they must get back to wasting this season some more with quality big time losses.

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The Raptors are 16th in scoring with 112.2 points per game, 19th in rebounds with 43.8 per game, 3rd in AST/TO ratio with 2.0, 5th in blocks with 6.2 per game.

The Pacers are 4th in scoring with 117.3 points per game, 15th in rebounds with 44.6 per game, 14th in AST/TO ratio with 1.7, 3rd in blocked shots with 6.6 per game

Our prediction for Saturday, November 12th is….  Raptors 116 - Pacers 108

Bet on the Raptors.  It is a very short  spread to start with... but with the Pacers being so thin on defense.... The Raptors have the advantage.

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Indiana is 76-37 ATS at home when the line is +3 to -3 over the last 5 seasons.

Toronto is 3-13 ATS when playing marginal teams (win percentage 40% to 49%) on the road the last 3 seasons.

Raptors: PG/SG/SF/PF Scottie Barnes.  The kid is very special in his ability to play anywhere on the court… and to do it while playing quality defense.  The Raptors have one of the best GMs in the entire league… There must be a reason that they are holding back from building around Scottie.

Pacers:  PG/SG Tyler Halliburton.  When the Sacramento Kings announced that they had traded for Pacers PF/C Domantas Sabonis… it was met by a brief cheer and then a collective slap of the forehead by every Sac-Town fan.  The team had traded the wrong guard to get him.  Sac-Town already knew that Tyrese was the best player on their roster… but for some reason the worst team at evaluating talent in the history of the league kept ball hog De’Aaron Fox instead.

Raptors: Nick “remember me and my hat?” Nurse

Pacers: Rick “This is where Witness Protection placed me” Carlisle