NBA Basketball
2026-04-12 - Brooklyn Nets at Toronto Raptors
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States : NBA Basketball
Sunday 12th April 2026 - Scheduled 6pm EST
11pm (British Time)
Preview
One more win will take the Toronto Raptors (45-36) into the First Round of the NBA Playoffs and they will likely take on the New York Knicks.
There is a scenario in which they can move up into the top five, but the Raptors will only be focused on avoiding dropping out of these positions and being forced to join the Play In Tournament beginning next week.
If they are being honest, the Toronto Raptors will have to be really poor to drop this game against the Brooklyn Nets (20-61) who are not going to risk any important player that is carrying anything. A poor season is coming to a conclusion and there is little reason for the Nets to do anything other than that and they have suffered consecutive blowout losses to teams eliminated from the post-season.
All of the attention is going to be on the Draft Lottery and so the Toronto Raptors should have enough to bounce back from another heavy defeat to the New York Knicks. Some of the roster were rested for that game with the Raptors knowing they had this second opportunity to secure a top six spot in the Eastern Conference and the Raptors blew away the Miami Heat twice prior to the defeat to New York.
Extra focus will be applied when you think of the Toronto Raptors were blown out by the Brooklyn Nets when they last met, albeit back in December. That should give the home team a little more motivation if reaching the First Round of the Playoffs is not enough.
In recent outings, the Nets have been a little inconsistent Offensively, which is not a big surprise.
At the same time, Brooklyn have allowed teams to do whatever they liked on the other side of the court with the team allowing opponents to average 52% from the field over the last few days. This Toronto team are more than capable of taking advantage, while they showed against the Miami Heat that weak three point Defensive rotations will also be exploited.
As mentioned in a number of previews over the last week, the oddsmakers will inflate lines at this stage of the season for teams 'needing' to win.
However, the Raptors have won three of the last five games played and two of those were by very wide margins, which would have been enough to cover this number.
There is less reason for the Raptors to take the foot off the gas if they are on course to earn a First Round spot in the Playoffs with those Series not set to begin until next weekend. While there is a concern that those entering the Play In Tournament will ease off if they cannot improve position, that should not be the case for the Toronto Raptors and this may end up being a cruise into the post-season.
Prediction
Lay the points with the home favourite.
The Pick :
Toronto Raptors 121-91 Brooklyn Nets
