NBA Betting Preview: Miami Heat vs. Toronto Raptors Game 2 Odds, Analysis

For the second straight playoff series, the Toronto Raptors lost Game 1 at home to put themselves in an early hole.

After falling to the Miami Heat 102-96 in overtime as 3.5-point favorites, the Raptors are listed as 4.5-point chalk for Game 2 on Thursday at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

Toronto rallied late against Miami in Game 1 to force OT on Tuesday, as it trailed 79-69 with 6:31 remaining and needed a half-court shot by point guard Kyle Lowry in the final seconds to get to the extra session.

But then the Raptors ran out of gas and did not score until there was only 1:14 left in OT. The Miami backcourt of Dwyane Wade and Goran Dragic combined for 50 points and outscored Lowry and DeMar DeRozan by 21.

Lowry finished with a playoff-low seven points—the first time he has not scored in double digits since last year’s first-round playoff series versus the Washington Wizards. He made three of 13 shots from the field, including one of seven attempts from three-point range, and he had six assists, four rebounds, three steals and five fouls.

DeRozan had averaged 29.3 points in four regular-season meetings with the Heat and scored 22 in Game 1 on 9-of-22 shooting. Toronto’s backcourt seemingly had an edge going into this series, but the experience of Wade and the size of Dragic could provide the Raptors with a big problem here.

Miami has now won three in a row straight up and against the spread in the postseason following a three-game losing streak, according to the Odds Shark NBA Database. The Heat had dropped five of the previous six meetings with the Raptors before pulling off the Game 1 victory, losing three straight on the road by an average of 12.7 points.

Wade was surprisingly a minus-three in Game 1, and Dragic was plus-15 when he was on the court. Dragic was relatively quiet in the playoffs overall until Game 7 versus the Charlotte Hornets in the first round, when he scored a team-high 25 points in a 106-73 rout.

The under cashed in five consecutive games for Miami until Game 1, which would have fallen below the total as well had it not been for overtime. The total for the Heat-Raptors Game 2 matchup is set at 188 points.