Lakers roll past the Raptors in a stellar offensive night.
The Lakers completely took over in tonight’s 110–101 win over the Raptors, coming out hot from the get-go scoring 40 first-quarter points. With tonight’s bounce-back win from a huge loss to the Clippers, the Lakers get back in the win column and move their season record to 32–19. The Lakers still remain in 5th place in the Western Conference, one game behind the 4th place Denver Nuggets.
In the Lakers stellar offensive night, most of their production came in the first half, hitting 13 of their 18 total threes in the first two quarters. The Lakers made a season-high 9 threes in the first quarter, finishing 18 for 40 (45%) from the perimeter. Despite committing 21 turnovers the Lakers will still able to find a way to win tonight’s game, finishing 49% from the field, going 39 for 79 total.
The Lakers defensive performance was overlooked in tonight’s win by their explosive first-half performance on offense. This Lakers team was able to force the Raptors to shoot a season-low 15.2% from the three, going 5 for 33. Also making them shoot under 40% from the field, going 36 of 91 (39.6%) total.
The Lakers biggest performer of the night was Marc Gasol, who had a season-high 13 points on 6 of 9 (66.6%) shooting from the field while also adding 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 blocks on the night in his 29 minutes of action. Gasol recently voiced his competitive frustration of losing the starting center spot to the newly added Andre Drummond but has slowly accepted his role showing the true professional he is:
“I’m staying ready. I understand that we have to get Andre [Drummond] acclimated to what we’re trying to do. I’ll be ready, whatever happens, whether it’s five minutes, 10 minutes, I’ll stay ready no matter what”
Gasol was able to have a bulk of minutes due to the circumstances of the injured Drummond and the ejection of Montrezl Harrell, who the Lakers lost at the end of the first quarter. Harrell was ejected after sticking up for teammate Dennis Schröder, who got flipped and thrown on his back by Raptors OG Anunoby (who was also ejected). Harrell said he didn’t get any explanation from the officials on why he got ejected and spoke on the scuffle saying:
“My beef is with anybody who doesn’t have a Lakers jersey.”
The Lakers had seven players finish in double figures in tonight’s huge win over the Raptors. Four of those players came from the Lakers’ starting lineup as they combined for 61 points on the night. The Lakers bench scored 49 points with most of the production coming from Alex Caruso and Talen Horton-Tucker.
The 20-year-old sophomore Talen Horton-Tucker had a spectacular game using his long arms and athleticism score in the paint with ease. Horton-Tucker scored a game-high 17 points on 6 of 10 (60%) shooting from the field and 3 for 4 (75%) from the perimeter while also adding 6 assists and 4 rebounds on the night. In the Lakers past three games, THT has scored in double figures proving his role on this team is becoming more and more important. THT’s points in the past 3 games:
Vs. TOR: 17 PTS
Vs. LAC: 16 PTS
Vs. SAC: 15 PTS
Markieef Morris has had a very quiet productive workload since his addition to the starting lineup in place of the injured Anthony Davis. In 24 minutes, Morris was 2nd in scoring for the Lakers finishing with 15 points and 9 rebounds on 6 of 13 (46.1%) shooting from the field.
The Lakers sharpshooters Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (13 PTS) and Wes Matthews (9 PTS) combined for 22 points on the night with KCP going 2 for 2 (100%) from the three and Matthews going 2 for 6 (33.3%). The Lakers have had extremely hot and cold performances from their sharpshooter this season and during today’s game, the Lakers made it official adding another shooter to the roster. They added Ben Mclemore through the buyout market who is a career 36.3% three-point shooter and should help this team if needed to come in and knock down some shots giving the Lakers a deeper bench.
Alex Caruso tied his season-high 13 points in tonight’s win over the Raptors going 4 for 7 (57.1%) from the field and 3 for 4 (75%) from the three-point arc. Caruso also added 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals with a plus/minus of 10.
Another Laker sophomore Devontae Cacok has a career night, scoring his NBA best 10 points and 8 rebounds on 5 of 7 (71.4%) shooting from the field. Cacok had to step up in the lineup tonight after Montrezl Harrell was tossed in the first quarter and Cacok provided just what this team needed in his 16 minutes of action.
The Lakers will now travel for their 3rd game of a 7 game road trip to Miami this Thursday to face the 26–25 Miami Heat. The Lakers will highly possibly have center Andre Drummond in that matchup as he has missed the past three games due to a toe injury. The Lakers will love to have him in the lineup as they face their finals matchup in a must-win game to keep them afloat in the West.