WASHINGTON – Once upon a time, there was a thought in the NBA that teams could win with small lineups, and "positionless" basketball might make the traditional centre obsolete. 

Yeah, the math won that one. 

Turns out having seven-foot dudes in a sport where the rim is 10 feet off the ground is a good thing. And if the other team has a bunch of quality bigs, you'd better go get some too. 

The New York Knicks' best player on their championship team was a six-foot point guard, but they had three playable centres on their roster and two that were crucial to their success. The San Antonio Spurs have seven-foot-four Victor Wembanyama, but went and signed another seven-footer (Luke Kornet) in free agency and drafted another big man this past summer. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder? They are the early favourites for the 2026-27 title in part because they have three quality seven footers, including impressive seven-foot-three rookie Aday Mara. 

Which is, in part, what made the Raptors' match-up with the much-improved Washington Wizards so interesting here in the early stages of the season. 

As part of their makeover from perhaps the league’s most egregious tankers to a team that should be at least competitive, the Wizards now boast three quality big men themselves: 10-time all-star Anthony Davis, promising second-year centre Alex Sarr and former No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton. 

The Raptors remain stuck at one in the form of Jakob Poeltl and have their fingers crossed that his balky back can hold up for an entire year after playing just 46 games last season. 

The Raptors have solved this riddle before. Part of their relative success against Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs was managing the Cavaliers all-star duo of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. 

They did it by committee then, leveraging the strength, size and defensive versatility of Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles in particular. 

It was a formula they used again with great success in what ended up being a hard-fought but encouraging 112-102 win over Washington (1-1) that improved the Raptors to 2-0 before they head to Minnesota to match up with the Timberwolves on Sunday. 

Davis has been a longtime Raptors killer and manhandled this group a year ago when he was still with the Mavericks. But whatever lessons the Raptors have learned since have carried over, as Davis — who opened the season with 34 points and 12 rebounds on Wednesday — was limited to nine points........

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