The Cavaliers should be riding high coming into the second leg of their mid-week back-to-back set. Despite sitting the likes of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley on Wednesday, Cleveland rode a massive fourth quarter performance from Jarrett Allen to a 130-116 road win over the Heat. Now, the Cavaliers should be relatively well rested for their matchup with a Raptors squad that has won five of its last six games.
Can Cleveland defend home court against a red-hot Toronto squad? Let’s preview tonight’s game with the help of some of some odds and lines on the DraftKings Sportsbook.
Raptors vs. Cavaliers prediction, preview
While we don’t yet have an official injury report from the Cavaliers, there’s little doubt that both Mitchell and Mobley will be returning to action this evening. The question mark is Garland, who sustained a toe contusion in Monday’s loss to the Heat, and was forced to exit the game. That might not seem like the worst injury in the world, yet Garland missed the first seven contests of 2025-26 due to offseason toe surgery, and it’s very likely that a Cleveland team with championship aspirations will tread lightly with its All-Star point guard — especially this early in the season. Garland has looked rusty when he has played, shooting just 33.3% across three games. Jaylon Tyson has often started in place of Garland, yet the sophomore missed Wednesday’s victory due to a concussion.
A few injuries aside, it’s been a great beginning to the regular season for the Cavaliers, who sit solo second place in the Eastern Conference following yesterday’s defeat of Miami. Mitchell has been the most obvious bright spot, as the veteran guard is averaging a career-high 30.4 points over his 10 starts. That includes leading the NBA in three-pointers made per game (4.2). De’Andre Hunter, last year’s key trade deadline addition, has also come alive as of late, producing 24.3 points per contest in Cleveland’s last three matchups. If the former fourth-overall pick continues playing at this level, it truly gives the Cavaliers one of the deepest starting fives in the NBA.
Still, let’s not sleep on Toronto. The Raptors have playoff expectations in 2025-26 and, after an underwhelming 1-4 start, the team is sitting one game above .500 with the 12th-best net rating in the league (2.8). Brandon Ingram, Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett are all averaging over 19.0 points per contest while shooting at least 50% from the field, while Immanuel Quickley has found his rhythm across his past three starts, making 45.8% (11-for-24) of his threes with a 4.3 assist-to-turnover ratio. On top of that, Jakob Poeltl seems to have shaken off an early-season back ailment. The big man has posted a double-double in back-to-back games.
If Toronto can get any type of consistent production from one of its bench wings — Gradey Dick, Ja’Kobe Walter or Ochai Agbaji — this could actually be a pretty interesting team in the Eastern Conference. It helps that Collin Murray-Boyles appears to have been the right pick at No. 9 in this past summer’s NBA Draft. The knock on CMB coming out of college was his shooting, yet the rookie has made nine of his first 18 three-point attempts with the Raptors. Not too shabby.
Raptors vs. Cavaliers pick, best bet
Best Bet: Brandon Ingram 21+ Points (-105)
Ingram has hit this prop in six of his last 10 games, despite struggling immensely with his three-point stroke. In what should be a very uptempo environment — both these teams rank top 10 in pace — Ingram should get more than enough chances to score.
