NBA Betting Odds: Atlanta Hawks at Toronto Raptors

Added on Jan 12, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

The Atlanta Hawks look to continue their solid play of late as they head north of the border to take on the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre. Atlanta has won 8 of their last 10 and are still within sight of their red hot divisional rivals Orlando and Miami. Toronto has lost 7 of 10 and is trying to stay ahead of New Jersey in the Atlantic Division.

Atlanta Hawks at Toronto Raptors
January 12, 2011 4:05 PM Pacific

What looked like a tough scheduling spot for the Hawks got a whole lot easier thanks to a big snow storm that has effectively shut down the Atlanta area along with much of the Southeastern United States. Atlanta was slated to play the Milwaukee Bucks at home last night, but that game was postponed which allowed the team to leave for this game early. They’ve already arrived in Toronto and should be well rested when the take the court having last played Saturday night. The Hawks are still in third place in the Southeast but are at least keeping pace with division leading Miami and 2nd place Orlando who’ve both won 9 of their last 10.

Atlanta struggled on the road earlier this season but have turned it around of late. They’ve won and covered 4 of their last 5 away from Phillips Arena and overall there’s no issue whatsoever with their quality of play going 8-2 SU/ATS in their last 10 games. They’ve moved above the ‘Mendoza line’ on the road with a 12-9 SU/ATS record and catch the Raptors in very poor form. Toronto has lost 7 of 10 and are on a brutal 5-12-1 ATS run. The Raptors do have leading scorer Andrea Bargnani back in the lineup but they still don’t matchup well with a deep and versatile Atlanta team.

Hawks have dominated head to head play over the past few years, going 7-2 SU/ATS since 2008. Oddly enough, they’ve played better on the road with a perfect 5-0 SU/ATS mark in Toronto. In fact in their last 25 trips north of the border Atlanta is 19-6 ATS. Hawks can’t take any opponent lightly if they want to stay in sight of the two superstar laden Florida teams and this is a perfect tactical matchup for them to get a win. The teams’ relative scoring defense rankings illustrates this–Atlanta is #8 in the league allowing 94.7 PPG while Toronto is #25 allowing 105.5 PPG.

Bet Atlanta Hawks -3′ over Toronto Raptors