You obviously have to be careful making declarative statements a month into the regular season, but… Are the Raptors good again?
One of the league’s winningest teams during the 2010’s, Toronto has been lottery bound for most of the 2020’s. However, the Raptors enter play on Monday having won seven of their last eight games. It’s a span of time where Toronto has outscored opponents by 12.0 points per 100 possessions — the highest-mark of any Eastern Conference team within that same stretch.
Can the Raptors keep the good times rolling against the Hornets this evening? Let’s preview tonight’s game with the help of some of some odds and lines on the DraftKings Sportsbook.
Hornets vs. Raptors prediction, preview
While recent victories over the Nets and the Pacers aren’t all that impressive, it wouldn’t be fair to categorize the Raptors’ recent success as simply taking advantage of a soft schedule. In the past three weeks, Toronto has wins on the road over the Cavaliers and the Hawks, while it also defeated Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks by 28 points at Scotiabank Arena. In this 7-1 stretch the Raptors have really seemed to find their identity, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. Where the team was hyper-aggressive and trap-heavy in its first five contests of 2025-26, Toronto has settled into a much less frenetic style, anchored by Scottie Barnes and a now healthy Jakob Poeltl as a back line of rim protection. The result? The Raptors own the NBA’s third-best defensive rating in their last eight games (108.3).
Let’s not just quickly gloss over Barnes, either. Hampered by injuries for a majority of last season, Barnes is looking more and more like the former All-Star talent that once took home a Rookie of the Year trophy. With Brandon Ingram now around to lead the team in usage rate (25.3%) on the offensive side of the ball, Barnes has been freed up to exert more energy on defense. Across 13 starts, the one-time fourth-overall pick is averaging career-highs in blocks per game (1.8) and steals per game (1.5). In fact, he’s the only player in the NBA averaging at least 1.5 in both categories. Barnes is also shooting a career-high 41.2% from three-point range, so it’s not like he’s not been contributing on the scoreboard, either.
Speaking of All-Stars getting healthy, LaMelo Ball will be available for tonight’s contest after sitting out the second leg of the Hornets’ back-to-back set on Friday and Saturday. Ball has been limited to only seven games this season, and he’s shooting an underwhelming 41.9% from the field, yet Charlotte is averaging an impressive 123.7 points per 100 possessions with its point guard on the floor. Its also outscored opponents by 4.5 points per 100 possessions with Ball in the game. Ball logged 27.4 minutes in Friday’s overtime loss to the Bucks and I’d expect him to flirt with the 30-minute plateau on Monday in Toronto.
Kon Knueppel is the other name to keep in mind when talking about the Hornets. Knueppel set a new career-high with 32 points in that aforementioned loss to Milwaukee, and the 20-year-old leads all rookies in points per contest (17.2). The Duke product has been so good that DraftKings currently has a specialty prop market where you can bet which game Knueppel will break the NBA record for rookie three-pointers made. Seems like a pretty positive sign.
Hornets vs. Raptors pick, best bet
Best Bet: Under 239.5 (-108)
As stated above, the Raptors have been one of the league’s best defensive teams over their last eight games, and that’s coincided with the team slowing things down. In fact, in that same eight contest sample, both Toronto and Charlotte rank in the bottom 10 of the NBA in pace.
