Lakers-Raptors Open Thread

Oh, Canada. Why must you be so cold and distant? Why must your round bacon taste so good on pizza?

Toronto is the farthest the Lakers can travel from home and still play an NBA regular-season game. Stretched and vulnerable supply lines have doomed powerful empires throughout history. (See, e.g., Russia, the Invasion of by Napoleon Bonaparte.) Today we'll see whether the Lakers' supply chain for points and victories can stretch all the way to another sovereign nation.

Pretend you can tolerate Labatt Blue upon any mention of:

• 81,
• The NFL conference title games,
• Kobe Bryant's finger,
• Pau Gasol's toughness, lack of toughness, missing toughness, dubious toughness and so on and so forth, or
• Chris Bosh a Laker question mark? OMFG!!!1!!1

Fun knowledge: Amir Johnson was a high-school teammate of Trevor Ariza. He's also the last high-school player drafted by the NBA.