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The Brooklyn Nets played about as good a game as they possibly could. Still, it wasn’t enough to hold on against the Toronto Raptors in Game 2 of their first-round series on Wednesday afternoon. The Raptors, who trailed pretty much all game, were able to come back for a 104-99 win over the Nets to take a 2-0 series lead.
The Nets trailed by 3 points with a chance to tie the game on a final possession. Instead, the Raptors forced a turnover by Garrett Temple and Norman Powell converted a slam on the other end to clinch the win. Powell stepped up big after a shaky Game 1, scoring 24 points on 11-of-17 shooting off the bench. Fred VanVleet had 24 points and 10 assists, while Kyle Lowry added 21 points for Toronto.
The Nets did a great job on the glass all game but defense was the issue late in the fourth. Jarrett Allen and Joe Harris each finished with 15 rebounds. Allen had a huge game with 14 points, 5 assists and 3 blocks on top of the cleaning the glass. Caris LeVert was held in check, shooting 5-of-22 from the field while only scoring 16 points. He still had 11 assists and the Nets really should have won despite his struggles.
The spread was -11 in favor of the Raptors for this game. Most of the bets were coming in on Brooklyn to cover, which they did pretty easily. The O/U was high after Game 1 saw a lot of scoring. This one was pretty tight and hit the UNDER by a wide margin at 203 compared to 226.5. This is what happens when both teams play defense, which could be a theme the rest of the way. We could also see the Nets cave in after this, so monitor the O/U line for Game 3. There should be value with the variance in outcomes.