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Fred VanVleet, DeAndre’ Bembry suspended for on-court altercation vs. Lakers

Raptors guards will sit one game for incident this week. Talen Horton-Tucker will also be suspended.

By Benjamin Zweiman Updated
Toronto Raptors players and Los Angeles Lakers clear the bench and have words during the first quarter at Amalie Arena on April 06, 2021 in Tampa, Florida. Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images

The NBA handed out suspensions to the Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers for their altercation on Tuesday night. Fred VanVleet, DeAndre’ Bembry and Talen Horton-Tucker all received one-game suspensions. OG Anunoby and Montrezl Harrell were both hit with fines due to the incident in the Raptors 110-101 loss to the Lakers. So FVV and Bembry will not play on Thursday night vs. the Chicago Bulls, while THT will not play Thursday against the Miami Heat.

This has a bit of an impact on Thursday night’s slate and the betting lines for each game. We’ll start with the Lakers, since they are also looking at Kyle Kuzma potentially being out due to injury. If that’s the case, the Lakers will be down LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kuzma and THT. That would mean plenty of minutes for both Montrezl Harrell ($6,200) and Dennis Schroder ($7,000) again.

Andre Drummond ($6,500) is probably a fade again because even if he returns to action, he may not play much. Markieff Morris ($5,000) will probably be forced to play heavy minutes and will continue to be a good chalk play. Alex Caruso ($3,800) is another strong value option for both cash and GPPs.

The Toronto Raptors offer a lot of appealing options with this news. The Raps won’t have FVV or Kyle Lowry in the back court, so rookie Malachi Flynn ($4,700) should see 30+ minutes again. So we already have a few nice chalk options from Toronto and L.A. OG Anunoby ($7,000) and Gary Trent Jr. ($6,300) are going to be popular all-around plays as well.

The Heat spread is up to Miami -8.5 and that still seems pretty appealing. If Kuzma gets ruled out, the Lakers will have next to nothing against Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Victor Oladipo. The O/U is also really low at 203.5. I could see Miami’s offense coming to life a bit and putting up a ton of points against this Lakers team. The Raptors are getting 4.5 points against the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls are coming off a pair of strong victories, so I wouldn’t really touch Toronto at this number.

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