Sportsinteraction

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

Philadelphia -8½ -106 over Toronto

7:00 PM EST. This game is a scheduling crime scene, and Toronto is the victim. The Raptors played at home in Toronto on Wednesday night, lost a 98-93 grinder to Boston, and now have to fly across the border and play the second night of a back-to-back in Philadelphia, their third game in four nights. That is the headline, but the calendar has been beating Toronto up for two weeks: a four game western swing through Los Angeles twice, Denver and Milwaukee, then straight home into Memphis on Monday and Boston on Wednesday, two more losses, and now a road back-to-back against the best team in the East. Nobody's legs survive that stretch, and the scores show it: Toronto has scored 102 and 93 in its last two games, way below its 114.5 season average, because tired teams do not shoot straight and they do not get back on defence. Meanwhile Philadelphia has been sitting at home since Tuesday with a full day off, rested, in its own beds, waiting for a team that got off a plane this morning.

The bodies are breaking down too, which is what happens when the schedule never lets up. Kawhi Leonard is out with left knee swelling, he has not played since Oct 23, and the Raptors said Tuesday he needs at least another week before they even re-evaluate him. Scottie Barnes is out with a groin strain, three straight games missed, so the Raptors are walking into a back-to-back short of their best two-way player. Philadelphia, for all the noise about the injury report, still rolls out Tyrese Maxey at 26.7 points a game, Joel Embiid at 17.7 points and 9.3 rebounds, LeBron James doing a bit of everything at 15.1 points, 7.2 boards and 6.5 assists, and Jaylen Brown in support. That is four guys who can take over a quarter against a defense that is running on fumes, and the 76ers are 9-3 for a reason. This is not a fair fight, and the schedule made it that way.

The last meeting between these two went 115-102 to Philadelphia, and that was with Toronto fresh. Tonight the Raptors are anything but, and the fourth quarter is where back-to-backs go to die: the legs go, the threes fall short, and a six point game becomes a 14 point game in four minutes. Philadelphia at home, rested, with the deeper roster and the better record, against a team playing its third game in four nights on the road, is exactly the spot you lay the points.

Sportsinteraction