Toronto's Bold Strategy to Dethrone the Lakers: Can They Pull It Off Swiftly?

Lakers vs. Raptors, 7:30 ET

I’ve had a bit of a tough stretch in the NBA lately, at least on the Outkick shared plays. The other ones have been good, and ones on Twitter have been fine overall, but the last couple of articles I have shared have been losers. Two of them on the Knicks and one on the Cavs against one of these same teams. I’m back at it again, hopeful that I can steal a win in this one as the Lakers take on the Raptors.

The Lakers are one of the best teams in basketball and they are doing a great job of winning on the road. Now, I want to clear one thing up: they are playing one of the most convenient schedules of all the teams in the league. They have had three back-to-backs this season, but they are also getting plenty of rest before a lot of games. I’m sure the comparison is out there, but they’ve also already had four stretches of 2+ days rest between games. Most of time, teams are getting just one day off and then a game. This has been the case essentially since LeBron James came to the Lakers. This won’t be an easy game for Los Angeles, though. They are going to play this one without their superstud, Luka Doncic. They still will have Austin Reaves, and they will have LeBron James. Their starting five is as good as any in the league when healthy, but the team is not very deep when fully healthy. Now that they are dealing with a couple of injuries, they are even thinner.