Last night’s 12-game NBA slate was wildly entertaining, and tomorrow night will bring nine games of Emirates NBA Cup action. By comparison, tonight’s three-game offering represents a lull, but with one 7 p.m. ET tip-off and two 9 p.m. ET games, there will be hoops action from dinner time into the witching hours.
That 7 p.m. tipoff is the only one between two teams with a winning record, as the 8-4 Cleveland Cavaliers will host the 7-6 Toronto Raptors at Rocket Arena. Toronto will have the rest advantage since Cleveland is on the second night of a back-to-back, but it’s worth noting that the Cavaliers rested Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Darius Garland last night in their loss to the Miami Heat.
Cleveland is a 7.5-point favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook (-305 on the Moneyline), with the point total set at 239.5. The Raptors are +245 on the Moneyline. Below, I’ll lay out my three favorite prop bets for tonight’s clash.
RJ Barrett 20+ Points (-110)
Barrett has been pretty much the exact same player for the last five seasons, averaging almost exactly 20 points per game on fairly inefficient shooting and providing little value as a playmaker or a defender. Still, he’s made some small strides in his seventh season, converting at a career-high rate from two-point range and turning the ball over less frequently than ever. As a result, while he’s still had some stinkers, he’s recorded at least 20 points in seven of his 11 games this season. One of them came in Toronto’s first game against the Cavaliers on Halloween, when he had exactly 20 points on eight-for-15 shooting and canned three of his five triples.
Cleveland’s defense hasn’t been great to start the season. Though the Cavaliers have had the 11th-best defense on a per-possession basis, they play at the league’s fifth-fastest pace, so they’ve allowed the 12th-most points per game. They’ve been especially vulnerable to corner three-point shooters, allowing opponents to convert at a league-high rate, and Barrett has attempted the second-most corner threes on the Raptors while making half of them. They’ve also allowed an above-average number of shot attempts at the rim and in the non-restricted paint, and Barrett has converted at a high rate from both zones this season.
Donovan Mitchell O10.5 Assists + Rebounds (-101)
Mitchell is predominantly known for his scoring prowess, but he’s also averaged at least four boards and four assists per game in each of the last eight seasons. His six-foot-10 wingspan and 40-inch vertical make him a factor on the boards, and he knows when to kick it into high gear if his shot isn’t falling. In Cleveland’s loss to the Heat on Monday, Mitchell shot just 10-for-28 from the field but made a huge impact with 15 boards and eight assists, and all in all, he’s had 11 or more assists + rebounds in three of his last four games. He didn’t suit up the last time these two teams faced off.
This season, Toronto has been a league-average unit against opposing playmakers while conceding the 12th-most boards. Despite their mediocrity on the boards, the Raptors have actually gotten lucky in that department: their rebounds were contested at the 11th-lowest rate. As a passer, Mitchell has gotten extremely unlucky: despite ranking 12th in potential assists per game, he ranks just 30th in actual assists and has the most potential assists of any player averaging six or fewer dimes per game. Any normalization of luck should help Mitchell make a well-rounded impact, especially since Toronto has gotten pretty fortunate that opponents have shot the ninth-lowest percentage on wide-open triples.
Evan Mobley O2.5 Steals + Blocks (-135)
Last season’s Defensive Player of the Year has gotten off to a hot start so far in 2025-26, as one of just two players — along with the Raptors’ Scottie Barnes — averaging at least 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks per game. While his 1.5 steals per game represents a career high, he’s never had a season in which he averaged fewer than 0.8, so it didn’t come entirely out of the blue. It’s almost inevitable in a system that emphasizes switching and hustle: he, Mitchell, and Jarrett Allen all rank in the league’s top 32 in deflections per game for a team that leads the league in deflections and ranks fourth in steals and sixth in blocks.
While the Raptors have been clean with the ball overall, averaging the fourth-fewest turnovers in the league, they’ve been blocked at the league’s fourth-highest rate after finishing second-to-last in that category last season. In part, it’s a personnel thing: the drive-happy Barrett has been rejected at least once per game in each of his NBA seasons, and Brandon Ingram and Immanuel Quickley have also been blocked at least once per game so far. Barnes does a better job getting his shots past defenders, but Mobley rejected him twice and forced him to commit three turnovers in the 88.3 partial possessions that the two matched up in 2024-25.
