Undermanned Lakers overwhelmed by Raptors
TORONTO — First, the fans had their say.
When a list of inactive players hit the jumbotron on Wednesday night, the Scotiabank Arena crowd booed. The Lakers only come here once a year, and tickets for those games come at a premium. But without All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the spark goes out of the spectacle.
Then the Raptors took the court. And they exposed exactly what the Lakers were missing.
Toronto blew the doors off of a short-handed L.A. roster, torching them 126-113 to give the Lakers their second straight loss. After two different five-game losing streaks to start the season, it was actually the first time the Lakers had lost consecutive games since Nov. 11 – an unwelcome reminder of the bad old days.
It was understandable given that the Lakers were missing their two biggest stars, while a third, Russell Westbrook, continues to come off the bench. But dropping to 10-14 and remaining in 13th place in the Western Conference doesn’t exactly match the impression of ascendancy that the Lakers have been trying to give lately. And the biggest problem Coach Darvin Ham had with the evening was what he called “disappointment lags” that dogged the team in the second quarter when the evening went haywire.
“It spills over into the entire group where, now, we got everybody coming in without moving the ball side to side at all,” he said. “You’re throwing up bad shots. You’re not covering your assignments defensively. I saw a lot of that in the first half. And again, once I addressed that at halftime, they did a good job of pulling together and coming out in the second half and really competing.”
In the absence of their franchise pillars, Dennis Schröder led with 18 points, while Westbrook added 16 points and nine rebounds. Thomas Bryant had another solid offensive night with 16 points, aided by going 10 for 10 from the free-throw line.
But individual stats had little value in a game in which the Lakers shot 42.5% from the field (and 7 for 33 from 3-point range) and gave up 58 points in the paint, including 24 second-chance points.
Six Raptors scored in double figures, led by Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet with 25 apiece. Toronto led by as much as 27 and had a double-digit lead the entire second half.
Adding injury to insult: In the fourth quarter, forward Juan Toscano-Anderson, who was playing for just the fourth time in the past 11 games, twisted his right ankle and had to be carried off the court. Health is another critical area where the Lakers are going in the wrong direction.
“(Juan is) a good soldier for us,” Ham said. “And you can never have too many of those guys: guys who are gonna go out and be selfless whether they’re getting minutes or not getting minutes, and just be a pro.”
At first, the Lakers were just underwhelming rather than totally overmatched. While the Raptors scored the first 11 points of the game, Westbrook checked in earlier than usual and helped pick up the offensive pace. After a quarter, the Davis-less defense had allowed 39 points, but the Lakers were just eight points behind.
It fell apart in the second quarter. Leading 46-41 with 7:11 left, the Raptors ripped off a 16-0 run. During that stretch, the Lakers missed 10 consecutive field-goal attempts and had two turnovers. By halftime, they were down by 23 points.
Ham credited Westbrook’s leadership in huddles for getting the team back on track later on.
“It’s important each individual on our team understands how important each night is, not taking this game or being able to play for granted,” Westbrook said. “That’s a part of leadership I want to make sure get that message across to the guys. Go out and compete and play the right way.”
On this road trip, the Lakers have two more chances to get it right. With a 2-2 start to their longest sojourn of the season, they have remaining games against Philadelphia and Detroit before returning to L.A.