It’s an Eastern Conference clash between a pair of rebuilding teams from Scotiabank Arena on Thursday night, as the lowly Brooklyn Nets host the similarly basement-dwelling Toronto Raptors.
Though it’s Toronto, not Brooklyn, at the bottom of the conference in 14th, the Nets should join it soon after the trade of Dennis Schroder to Golden State. That move saw the Nets trade their only true organizer with Cam Thomas, who was much more of a score-first lead guard.
On paper, the Raptors are considerably more talented, so this could be a potentially competitive game from the North.
With an NBA League Pass special on the slate this Thursday in Toronto, check out our Brooklyn Nets vs. Toronto Raptors predictions, including our NBA expert picks, with tip set for December 19 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Matchup Brooklyn Nets vs Toronto Raptors Overview
Teams: Brooklyn Nets vs. Toronto Raptors
Date: Thursday, December 19, 2024
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Scotiabank Arena
Win Probabilities
The prediction tip for the winner of the game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Toronto Raptors is the Toronto Raptors. The winner probabilities are 66.67% (Toronto Raptors) and 40.0% (Brooklyn Nets).
Projected Final Score
Our predicted final score for this NBA matchup is Toronto Raptors 110-99 Brooklyn Nets.
Expert Prediction: Who Wins?
In what was always going to be a massive season of transition for the Brooklyn Nets, especially after they re-acquired their own first-round picks from the Houston Rockets and dealt Mikal Bridges to the cross-town New York Knicks, they actually began decently.
At 10-16, Brooklyn’s currently on the fringe of the play-in tournament in the lowly Eastern Conference. To the surprise of nobody who followed Canada Basketball over the last two summers, new Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez has his team playing above their levels.
Unfortunately for Brooklyn, however, it’s likely that things are about to become so much tougher. In dealing point guard Dennis Schroder to the Golden State Warriors for salary, picks, and De’Anthony Melton — who’s out for the season — the Nets moved on from their only true organizer. Though Ben Simmons is capable of initiating in the half court his presence is a true detriment to the team. Worse still, combo guard Cam Thomas remains out with a hamstring injury. While he is a score first (and second and third) kind of point guard, he would at least represent an initiator.
The absence of Thomas and the trade of Schroder will likely see the end of the Nets’ lone bright spot. While the team has struggled so mightily throughout the 2024-25 season, they had at least a fairly efficient offense to depend on most nights. At the time of Schroder’s trade to Golden State, the Nets were 15th in adjusted offensive rating and just on the fringes of the top 10 in true shooting percentage.
Now, with Simmons, the only decent ball handler on the team, unbelievably limited, the Nets’ offense will likely regress rapidly. With a defense that already stinks, anchored to the bottom 10 in the NBA despite Nick Claxton and Simmons’ high defensive pedigrees, Brooklyn can’t survive offensive slippage.
That is incredibly welcome news for a Raptors team that’s dealt with key injuries and poor play all season long. Just like Thomas’s injury and Schroder’s exit threatened to derail Brooklyn, the same could be said for Toronto without Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes. Yet, while the Nets’ revolving door at point guard ups responsibility for the undependable Simmons, Toronto’s injuries open up opportunities for RJ Barrett — who has shown glimpses of massive improvement this year.
To back the Raptors to win at home against the Nets here is to trust Barrett to have one of those games because, in a big-picture sense, Toronto’s performed worse than Brooklyn all season long. The Raptors’ adjusted offensive and defensive ratings have been in the bottom 10 all season despite a genuinely competent NBA rotation.
Worse still is that, while the Nets at least could lean on decent efficiency on good nights, the Raps have not and can not. With players like Barrett and Barnes leading the charge on the offensive end, the Raptors’ efficiency has been nonexistent. Ahead of this clash at home with the Nets, the Raps are just a tad above the bottom five in the league in terms of true shooting percentage.
And yet — we’re perfectly comfortable backing the Raptors in this spot against the Nets. Brooklyn’s just 1-6 in its last seven games ahead of this meeting and has been roundly outplayed.
The closest comparison to the Raptors matchup in that seven-game sample size is a game against the Chicago Bulls, who, like the Raptors, are performing at a very mediocre level despite NBA talent in its rotation. That game saw the Nets lose by 26 points on the road and never look competitive. That meeting and result are terribly foreboding ahead of a trip to Toronto.
While the Raptors, for their part, are on a current five-game losing skid, they’ve seen brutally tough foes like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, and Miami Heat in that stretch. Coincidentally, the latest loss came at the hands of those same Chicago Bulls — but Toronto played them much closer, losing by just one point.
As the Brooklyn Nets begin a second chapter in their season, one without impactful point guard play, expect them to get off to a tough start. With a seventh loss in eight games looming, Brooklyn will head up north and be just the fodder needed for the Raptors and hometown hero RJ Barrett to bounce back from a tough stretch of their own.
Current Brooklyn Nets vs. Toronto Raptors Odds
| Team | Moneyline | Spread | Total |
| Brooklyn Nets | +150 | +4.5 (-115) | O217.5 (-115) |
| Toronto Raptors | -200 | -4.5 (-115) | U217.5 (-115) |
How to Make Brooklyn Nets vs. Toronto Raptors Picks
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