The Washington Wizards hit the road Friday night, traveling to Canada to take on the Toronto Raptors.
While these teams sit on completely opposite ends of the standings, they have both overcome a lot to be where they currently are. The Wizards have had several key players miss games, and they have had to sign players out of the G-League to come in and play 30 minutes right off the bat.
Jordan McRae has hardly played for several years in this league and went on an absolute tear. It is truly impressive that they don’t have more losses in 2019-20. Now, to keep Bradley Beal happy.
Toronto has been playing without Fred VanVleet for a while now and went nearly a month without Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol and Norman Powell, yet the wins continued to keep coming. The Raptors played a month without Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka, but they didn’t slow down.
On Wednesday night, for the first time, we saw Ibaka start alongside Gasol, with Siakam at the 3 and OG Anunoby at the 2. The Raptors did pick up a win in the nail-biter, but that will certainly not be sustainable.
All the credit in the world to Nick Nurse and his guys for being in this position at the halfway point.
The spread for this game has Toronto favored by 10, with the over/under set to a whopping 229.
Going For The Upset
Slowly but surely, the Wizards are starting to get players healthy again. Thomas Bryant, Davis Bertans and Beal have all come back, though Mo Wagner is still a ways from returning. The Wizards do not play much defense and rank dead last in the league, allowing nearly 119 points per game.
But Washington can score, ranking fifth in the league in points despite the poor record. Ish Smith has been the only guy to appear in every game, and the bench is looking different each game. Gary Payton II is getting the most consistent playing time of his career, while Anžejs Pasečņiks is playing some good ball for this team.
It will take a lot for the Wizards to slow Toronto down, but if they can score as well as we have seen before, you can pencil them in with a chance to get it done. Let’s see.
Getting Healthy
The Raptors know what it’s like to be short-handed, with four of their five starters having missed significant time this year. This is after losing two of their starters from their run to the Finals in free agency. The defending champions should make it to the playoffs and will be a tough out for anybody that comes to meet them.
The Raptors have several players that are dominating within their roles, veterans stepping up as the team’s few young guys add some contributions. It may not be sustainable with Lowry and Gasol on the wrong side of 30 and almost 35, respectively, but for now, it’s great.
Toronto is heavily favored and hopes to come up with another win Friday night.
Raptors Get The Win
It will be a tough night for the Wizards, as they’ll fall to 13-28 on the year. The lack of D will hurt. Take the Raptors.
Free Play: TOR -10
