Coming off of a tough loss last night against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Raptors had to continue this road trip by heading across town to Crypto.com Arena to face the Lakers.
Going in to this one, Anthony Davis held the league lead for scoring at a remarkable 32.4 points per game. Combined with superstar forward LeBron James, the duo are fighting to keep their Lakers alive in the playoff picture in the west, with a 5-4 record.
Toronto, on the other hand, were 2-8 and had dropped three straight. Already not projected to finish too high in the standings this season and now missing four key players, the Raptors had their work cut out for them on night four of a five game road trip.
Despite the odds stacked against them, it was a great start to the game for the good guys. The Raptors, as they have continued to do this season and especially this road trip, bring the fire early. With Scottie Barnes out, the trio of RJ Barrett, Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji got to work and made the Lakers keep up with them. The return of Immanuel Quickley was notable as well, with three assists in the first quarter.
Shooting 65% from the field and 3/5 from three, everything was turning up purple. Raptors purple that is, not Lakers purple. That got confusing a few times in this outing. After double checking who’s score is who’s on the broadcast, Toronto led 34-26 after the opening quarter.
Turnovers would be their kryptonite, with five in the first quarter and an errant pass deflecting out of bounds to open the second frame. I’m not sure whether it was this turnover or just the beginning of the second half that woke up LeBron James, but the king brought his best after going scoreless with only one assist in the first.
LeBron would hit D’Angelo Russell in the corner for a three, then score his first points of the night on a pair of free throws after Agbaji responded with a three of his own. A Quickley floater brought the lead back up to eight, where it would remain for a few minutes.
Neither team was able to score for a short stretch, with a few scrums around the rim fighting for rebounds and put-backs. The king would end the drought with a layup and the foul, trying to not let the Toronto lead get out of hand. Jamal Shead would counter with a floater of his own, the first Raptors basket in two and a half minutes of play. An Anthony Davis layup caused a timeout to be called by Raptor coach Darko Rajakovic in an attempt to end the dry spell.
Initially, the plan didn’t go as intended, with Toronto giving the ball away for their ninth turnover of the game only a quarter and a half in. For context, the team only registered 10 turnovers against the Clippers the night before in a three point loss. Cam Reddish scores on the turnover, and is immediately answered with a Chris Boucher three pointer, set up by Davion Mitchell.
All of a sudden, the plan was working out just fine. A pair of buckets from Agbaji and Poeltl, and it’s back up to a game-high ten point Raptor lead. Then, as soon as the momentum had shifted into Toronto’s favour, it was gone again.
Six straight points from the league’s leading scorer, Lakers big man Anthony Davis, and the home is right back in it. Toronto answered back with a few buckets but the damage was done. The home crowd providing the momentum, the Lakers made a push.
A 9-5 run in favour of Los Angeles to end the half, capped off by a buzzer beating step-back three from Russell, meant the Raptors only led by two points at halftime.
While still bringing that energy and effort, it was clear that the team was in over their heads against two of the league’s best in James and Davis. Now add in the fact that it’s the penultimate game of a five game road trip, on the second half of a back to back in LA, and it makes the team’s performance that much more impressive.
At the half, Barrett led the way with 13 points, Poeltl and Agbaji right behind him with 10 each. The game lead, of course, sat with the league’s current leading scorer in Anthony Davis, with 19 points.
If you’ve watched many of the Raptors’s outings recently, this second half will ring a lot of bells. Out of halftime, Dick and Quickley were able to bring the lead back up to nine points, but that momentum would quickly dissipate. It never fully swung in the Lakers’ favour, but it certainly wasn’t in Toronto’s.
Back and forth, both sides making shots, the Raptors trying to pull back away, the Lakers hoping to drag them back in. The home team would prove a little stronger and with the lead reduced back down to only three points, Jakob Poeltl went for an attempted finish at the rim. Up the seven footer went, and meeting him at the top was Anthony Davis, rejecting the Austrian’s layup, but also getting swatted in the face and eye with Poeltl’s off-hand.
LA’s big man would be forced to leave the game and would eventually be ruled out due to the injury.
From 73-70, the Lakers went on a 19-8 run after their All-Star went down. LA took the lead by a three pointer from their rookie Dalton Knecht on a pass from LeBron James to make it 79-77, and the home team never looked back.
LA continued to pour it on, led by James, and managed to get their lead up to six by the end of the quarter. At 88-82, the game would enter the final frame.
An Immanuel Quickley and-one in the opening minute would be the closest it got after that, reducing the deficit to five points for not even 20 seconds before a James free throw. King James would post a 19/10/16 triple double in this outing. The Lakers would pull away from there, but not for lack of a Raptors effort.
The squad never lets up or throws in the towel, but down the stretch of this one it was clear that the team was exhausted, worn out and just not quite as talented as this Lakers roster.
With 1:40 left Coach Rajakovic called a timeout and in went the benches. Final from this one was 123-103. Austin Reaves led the game scoring wise with 27, Raptors team-high going to RJ Barrett with 18. In fact, all five Raptors starters plus Chris Boucher posted at least 12 points in a true team effort, despite still falling short. Five Raptors with three or more assists as well, they’re executing the game plan quite well, but the roster is unfortunately not talented enough to keep up with the big dogs.
Coming back to the Eastern Conference, Toronto’s road trip wraps up in Milwaukee on Tuesday night.
