The Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings meet for the second time in a week.
The pregame narrative: Toronto beat Sacramento as a 9.5-point underdog during Vince Carter’s jersey retirement on Saturday and is getting the same amount of points tonight. On the prop market, I expect DeMar DeRozan and Gradey Dick to show out.
Check out my Raptors vs. Kings props for Nov. 6.
Raptors vs. Kings props
Go to full NBA betting markets
Best Bet: DeRozan over 28.5 points and assists (-114)
The revenge game narrative gets overused but there’s legitimate beef here.
Toward the end of Saturday’s festivities, during which DeRozan dropped 33 points and four assists, Drake felt the need to say: “If you ever put (up) a DeRozan banner, I’ll pull that thing down myself.”
DeRozan responded postgame with: “He’s gonna have a long way to climb to get there.”
Talking smack is one thing but the former Raptor has a golden opportunity to back it up on the court tonight. DeRozan has scored 20-plus points in all seven games as a King and is averaging 25.4 PPG on 17.0 field-goal attempts.
His floor as a scorer is high and the Raptors chronically struggle to defend small forwards.
Toronto allowed the most points per game to that position last year and is giving up the 10th-most points this season, according to Fantasy Pros. It also allowed the third-most assists per game to SFs in 2023.
DeRozan took a season-high 27 shots on Saturday and I expect him to be the primary attacker this evening. And if Toronto wants to send more bodies his way that should open up lanes for easy assists.
Key stat: DeRozan has cleared this line in four of seven games (three straight) with no fewer than 26 points and assists.
Quick pick
Dick over 2.5 threes (-139): This line has been moving around all morning and was sitting at -145 at one point. I’m not a fan of paying this much juice but Dick has been torching teams from beyond the arc and gets a nice matchup.
The Kings are allowing opponents to shoot a healthy 37.2% from beyond the arc and Dick hit 3-of-8 attempts against them a few days ago.
The sophomore shooting guard has now cleared this number in three straight games and four of his last six after a rocky start to the season. Dick is leading the Raptors in 3-point attempts per game (7.4) and is playing north of 30 minutes per night.
From a pure volume standpoint, this seems like a smash play.
Picks made at 9:20 a.m. ET 11/06/2024.
Avery joined NorthStar Gaming as an intern in 2022 before stepping into a full-time role soon after. He loves betting on and analyzing golf — mainly because it’s easier than actually playing — but is a fan of all sports, from the NFL to the UFC.