Sportsinteraction

Posted at 10:00 AM EST. Odds are subject to change.

Washington +8½ -110 over Toronto 

7:00 PM EST. One game into the season and the market has already lost its mind over the Toronto Raptors. Yes, Toronto won its opener 135-92. Yes, it was the biggest home-opening win in franchise history, 43 points in the first quarter, 27 turnovers forced, the whole building rocking. Now ask the only question that matters: who did they beat? Chicago. One of the worst teams in the league, a punching bag that Toronto teed off on for four quarters of open gym. And off that one game, against that opponent, the Raptors are now being asked to lay real points on the road against a team with Anthony Davis and Trae Young on it. That is not a price, that is an overreaction, and overreactions are what we do for a living.

Throw out last year's Wizards, because that 17-65 funeral procession no longer exists. This Washington team announced itself properly on Wednesday: Davis hung 34 points, 12 rebounds and four assists on Milwaukee, Young added 20 points and 13 assists, and the Wizards scored 77 points in the second half to run away 128-116. The detail that matters most is how they did it — they trailed most of the first half, fell behind again in the fourth quarter, and came back anyway. That is the profile you want when you're catching points at home. Teams with two genuine closers do not fold late, and in a game totaled at 236, where points will be flying in both directions and no lead is ever safe, the back door is open all night. Washington also shot 52% from the field while going 6-of-28 from three, which means the offense that just hung 128 has obvious room to be even better.

Now the honest counters, because there are a couple. Toronto's balance is real even with the asterisk on the opponent — Kawhi Leonard, Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley scored 23 apiece and RJ Barrett added 20, and this franchise defended at a top-10 level last season, which is exactly the kind of structure that can smother a home dog early. Washington's defense is also still Washington's defense until proven otherwise; the Wizards gave up 116 at home to a Milwaukee team that no longer has Giannis, and the trend sheet says they failed to cover a number like this in nine of their last 10. Most of that damage, though, was done by last year's tanking roster, and it cuts the other way tonight too: Toronto shows up without Brandon Ingram, its big addition, who is out with a partially torn Achilles, and with Chris Paul away from the team entirely. Washington has its own absence — first overall pick AJ Dybantsa is out — but the two stars who drive everything for the Wizards are healthy and already humming.

So here is the ask the market is making. Toronto, in the second game of the season, on the road, missing a core piece, has to be seven full points better than a home team built around two closers — all because it spent Wednesday night beating up the worst roster in the conference. Maybe the Raptors are for real. One game against Chicago doesn't prove it, and it certainly doesn't prove it at this price. a number we will go to war with any night of the week — with the home team in a track meet.

Sportsinteraction