Home court has been the great equalizer for both the Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards in their first-round series, as all five games so far have been won by the hosting squad. Game 6 of the Eastern Conference's most compelling first-round series tips off from Capital One Arena on Friday when the Wizards host the Raptors at 7 p.m. ET.
Washington opened as a one-point favorite and now is laying 1.5. The over-under, or total number of points Vegas thinks will be scored, is at 214.5.
Before picking either side, you need to read what SportsLine NBA expert Galin Dragiev has to say. Dragiev is on a 7-2 run on his recent against-the-spread Raptors picks. We can tell you he's expecting a high-scoring game and is leaning towards the over.
Dragiev, who has a strong analytical background and is SportsLine's top profiting NBA expert this year, has examined every matchup, every player and every trend for Toronto vs. Washington and locked in his pick.
For Sunday's Game 4 contest, in which the Raptors were laying 2.5, Dragiev astutely noted the Wizards' defense at home would be the answer in slowing down Jonas Valanciunas and his Toronto teammates. So he took the points. The result? Washington forced 10 steals and eight blocked shots in a 106-98 win, which allowed Dragiev to cash with plenty of points to spare!
The Raptors can cover the spread, and win outright, if they can post up Valanciunas in the paint. The 7-foot center presents plenty of size mismatches against the smaller Wizards.
While Kyle Lowry has been bailing out Toronto's offense in this series, the Raptors can't rely consistently on their shaky perimeter shooting. The Raptors got some clutch shooting in the fourth quarter of Game 5 in outscoring Washington by nine, but a few more three-point bricks could have cost them the game.
The Wizards can cover the spread by taking better care of the ball. They committed 15 turnovers in Game 5 to only 10 by the Raptors. They were also just 5 for 26 from three-point range; Kelly Oubre was 0 for 7. Washington must run its offense from the inside-out; get the ball into Marcin Gortat's hands in the lane and give him the option of dishing it back out to John Wall or Bradley Beal or taking it strong to the rim to put Valanciunas into early foul trouble.
The over is 4-0 in Toronto's last four contests following an against-the-spread win, and Washington is 5-1 against the spread in its previous six games at home.
So which side of Raptors-Wizards do you need to be all over? Visit SportsLine now to see the strong point-spread pick by Dragiev, who's nailed 78 percent of his most recent Toronto picks, to find out.
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