NBA Basketball
2025-12-02 - Portland Trail Blazers at Toronto Raptors
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States : NBA Basketball
Tuesday 2nd December 2025 - Scheduled 7:30pm
12:30am (British Time)
Preview
The Major League Baseball team gave Toronto sports a huge boost when the Blue Jays reached the World Series, but it is the Raptors (14-7) who have won a Championship most recently. That success in 2019 has raised expectations, but the last couple of years have been tougher and the Toronto Raptors have had little impact in the NBA.
However, this is a team that had been rebuilding the team and the Eastern Conference is more wide open in the 2025/26 season than it has been for a long time.
Toronto will be hoping they will be amongst the leading contenders next April having made a very positive start to the season, which includes reaching the NBA Cup Quarter Final. They will be hosting the New York Knicks next week, but the Raptors just suffered a blowout loss to the Knicks and have dropped the last two games.
Both defeats have been on the road at the end of a nine game winning run, but the Raptors are back home on Tuesday when hosting the Portland Trail Blazers (8-12).
Portland have also lost two in a row, although the form has been more disappointing for much longer than the Raptors and the Trail Blazers have dropped seven of the last nine played.
Injuries are proving to be a real issue for the Trail Blazers, which has contributed to the downturn in form, but they are playing hard and were competitive enough in defeats to the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder. The problem is the lack of depth with some solid names sitting out and that could show up for the Trail Blazers against a Toronto team that should have all available hands on deck in their bid to get back to winning ways.
The Raptors have continued to play well on the Defensive side of the court, but having Jakob Poeltl in the lineup should help them pick up enough boards when they are making stops. His absence was felt in the loss to the Knicks on Sunday, but Poeltl is expected to suit up for this one and it should give the home team the edge.
In recent games, the Raptors have just had the three point numbers dip further than expected, but they should be able to get something going against a Portland team allowing teams to shoot at 37% amongst this loss of form. That is important in the NBA to open up the rest of the Offensive spaces and Toronto will be looking for revenge for losing both meetings with Portland last season.
Much will depend on the intensity that the Raptors produce on the Defensive side of the court- they have made things very difficult for three point shooters and the Trail Blazers have struggled for consistency from the distance as they have had to plug in gaps.
Toronto are 5-2 against the spread in the last seven games when set as the home favourite and they can improve on that on Tuesday.
Prediction
Lay the points with the home favourite.
The Pick :
Toronto Raptors 113-104 Portland Trail Blazers
