NBA Basketball Odds: L.A. Lakers at Toronto

The Toronto Raptors (19-31 SU, 19-29-2 ATS) must have felt a lump in their throat on Monday when Kobe Bryant dropped 61 points on the Knicks. (Wikimedia Images)"]

His Los Angeles Lakers (38-9 SU, 24-23 ATS) are visiting the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday, a little over three years after Kobe dumped 81 points on the Raptors in a 122-104 victory.

And we thought those Raptors were bad. They were 6.5-point road dogs in that matchup; on Wednesday, Toronto gets 8.5 points at home. Bryant might not score 81 points this time – he could go even higher with the Raps ranked No. 22 in the league in defensive efficiency and the Lakers No. 1 on offense.

As for the loss of center Andrew Bynum (knee) for the next 12 weeks, the Lakers have a better plus-minus when Pau Gasol is at the 5-spot and Lamar Odom is at power forward. Yikes.