Lakers struggle in loss to the Raptors.
The Lakers were completely out of sync in arguably their worst loss of the season behind huge performances from Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam, losing 121–114 to the Toronto Raptors. It seems that the current state of the Lakers is not too worried about their record and where they stand in the West, losing five of their last six games. With tonight’s loss, the Lakers record falls to 36–28 making a three-way tie between the Lakers, Trailblazers, and Mavericks at 36–28.
The Raptors had an explosive offensive outing in tonight’s Lakers loss with the Raptors scoring 72 first-half points, the second most the Lakers have given up all year. Raptors all-stars Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam lead the way as they combined for 76 points in tonight’s loss. Kyle Lowry was the Raptors player of the game going for 37 points on the night with 11 assists on 12 of 20 (60%) shooting from the field and a stellar 8 for 13 (61.5%) from the three-point arc.
In LeBron James’ 2nd game back from a high ankle sprain he spoke on his injury saying: “I don’t want to say I came back too early, but at the end of the day I had to test it out and see where I was at.” After the game, James said he felt a sharp pain in his ankle, which was something he said he didn’t feel in workouts prior to the game. In 27 minutes of action, James had 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists on 6 for 11 (54%) shooting from the field. With the big concern around LeBron James and the Lakers health, James emphasized the importance of getting healthy:
“The most important thing for me is to be healthy and be at full strength when it really matters.”
In one of the worst performances of the season, the Lakers effort on both sides of the ball tonight could be a great wake-up call for this team. The playoffs are just around the corner with eight games left in the regular season. The Lakers are currently in a three-way tie between the Dallas Mavs and Portland Trail Blazers causing a possible move into the play-in bracket for the Lakers. LeBron James held nothing back voicing his opinion on the new play-in round saying:
“Whoever came up with that shit needs to be fired.”
In tonight’s loss, one player that was overlooked due to the Lakers effort was Anthony Davis. Davis had a tough night trying to stay consistent on offense going 5 for 16 (31%) from the field. In Davis’ 33 minutes of action, he finished with 12 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists in tonight’s loss. Davis spoke on the struggles surround this Lakers team saying “We’re frustrated we can’t get everyone available to play at the same time, but that can’t be an excuse for us anymore.” He also said that they’re the defending champs, and have to act like it. “We just gotta find our swag.”
Despite tonight’s tough loss, there were some positives that came, that being the stellar night from Kyle Kuzma. Kuzma led all Lakers in scoring with 24 points on 8 of 16 (50%) from the field and a hot 6 for 11 (54.5%) from the perimeter. Kuzma also added 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 1 steal in his 35 minutes of action. After the game Kuzma gave his opinion of the state of the Lakers team:
“I just don’t think we’re connected right now. I just think we’re unhealthy and not good enough, we just got to get back into it, try to find out someway, somehow to get it clicking again and find that spark.”
The Lakers will play their second game of a back-to-back tomorrow night against a good Denver Nuggets team. The man leading the way for Denver is the MVP front-runner Nikola Jokic. The Lakers will face a tough task tomorrow afternoon, but look for them to answer back with a huge effort tomorrow against Denver after getting hit in the mouth hard in tonight’s loss to the Raptors.