Undermanned Raptors Favoured by 7 Over Pistons

The Toronto Raptors are 7 point favourites over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night and sportsbooks are expecting big games from Kyle Lowry and Norman Powell

Aaron Rose | Mar 3, 2021

Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Raptors might be down Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, Fred VanVleet, Patrick McCaw, Malachi Flynn, head coach Nick Nurse, and essentially their entire coaching staff, but they're still much much better than the Detroit Pistons. At least according to Vegas oddsmakers.

Canadian sportsbooks have set the betting line at Raptors -7 for Wednesday night's game against the Pistons, according to Covers. Most sportsbooks opened with Raptors -9 early on Monday, but Toronto's COVID-19 issues took that number off the board and it's been hovering around -7.5 to -7 ever since.

The Pistons' moneyline can be found on Bet365 at +240, implying Detroit has merely a 29% chance of knocking off the Raptors' motley 12 man crew.

I believe the Raptors will have 12 active players for tomorrow: Kyle Lowry, DeAndre' Bembry, Chris Boucher, Terence Davis, Aron Baynes, Stanley Johnson, Matt Thomas, Norman Powell, Yuta Watanabe, Paul Watson, Donta Hall & Jalen Harris
— 𝐀𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞 (@AaronBenRose) March 2, 2021

While Toronto may be severely undermanned, the Pistons have been the NBA's second-worst team this season and have won just nine games all year. They too are battling their own injury issues with former Raptor Delon Wright (right adductor strain), rookie Killian Hayes (right hip strain), Frank Jackson (illness) all out. Blake Griffin has also left the team as he waits to be bought out or traded. And Jerami Grant is listed as questionable for Wednesday night.

As for player props, sportsbooks are expecting big games from Kyle Lowry and Norman Powell. Pinnacle has set Lowry's points total at 21.5, 3.5 points higher than his 18 points per game season average. Powell's points total is even higher at 22.5, almost five points above his season average, though on-par with his 22.3 points per game he's been averaging since January 22.

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