Raptors facing top-10 odds at winning NBA championship

Entering the 2021-22 season, few would’ve given the Toronto Raptors very good odds of winning an NBA title.

There was a lot of uncertainty as to how the team would cope with the loss of Kyle Lowry, and coming off a 27-45 season while playing the entirety of their home schedule in Tampa, Toronto wasn’t exactly coming into this season with any strong momentum to build off of.

Fast forward to today, and the Raptors find themselves dismantling offseason uncertainty with a five-game win streak, with all five matchups coming off the road.

So far, they’ve already surpassed one major hurdle: Toronto hit its projected over/under win total of 36.5 last week with a win over Denver.

In ESPN’s latest update of their Basketball Power Index (BPI) playoff odds, just nine teams: Phoenix, Boston, Milwaukee, Miami, Denver, Memphis, Utah, Philadelphia, and Golden State rank higher than Toronto’s projected 2.6% chance at an NBA title.

Sure, the Raptors’ odds of 2.6% might not seem like much of a shot at a championship at all. VegasInsider.com actually the betting markets having a fairly large discrepancy from ESPN’s model, giving Toronto the sixteenth-best betting odds at the title.

But it could be indicative of a trend in the right direction, with ESPN projecting the Raptors to finish fifth in the Eastern Conference and face the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round.

ESPN’s numbers also indicate how chaotic this NBA season has been.

Preseason title favourites in the LA Lakers face under a single tenth of a percentage point of winning it all, while injuries coupled with untimely cold stretches have hampered Chicago and Cleveland’s odds after sitting among the East’s top seeds for much of the season.

And then of course there’s a familiar Raptors foe in Brooklyn sitting right behind them in the Eastern title odds as they look to make it work following the blockbuster Ben Simmons-James Harden trade.

The Raptors have thirteen games remaining to solidify a playoff push, as they’re currently tied in the standings with Cleveland for the vaunted sixth-place spot that avoids the NBA’s play-in games, though the Cavaliers hold the season tiebreaker.

For Toronto, they’re just embracing the chance to be in the fight at this point in the year.

“I think it’s cool that we’re in with a chance to keep playing after [the regular season],” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said prior to Wednesday’s game. “By next Tuesday, we’ll be down to 10 [games left]. You snap your fingers and you play a back-to-back and you go on the road and play here tonight. And you’re down to your inside 10 [games left]. We’ve just got to keep playing. I’m not trying to save anything for anything.”

The Raptors next hit the court Friday night, hosting the LA Lakers at Scotiabank Arena. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.