One of the most interesting games in the Toronto Raptors calendar — LeBron and the LA Lakers in Toronto. It comes at a pretty inconvenient time for the Raptors, honestly. Thursday’s game was their 4th
game in 6 nights, the first in their second back-to-back of the week. The Lakers also had a bit of bad luck to overcome, given they were missing Luka Doncic, who is currently in Slovenia for the birth of his second child.
Yet LeBron was playing, which isn’t always the case for the Lakers’ sole trip to Toronto in a season. On Toronto’s injury report, Barrett was joined by Jakob Poeltl, who opted to sit on the bench tonight and play tomorrow, giving his back an extra day to rest.
In a packed week for the Raptors, a game against the 15-5 Lakers isn’t exactly optimal, especially missing Barrett and Poeltl. Barnes can definitely give James a hard time, assisted by the rookie Collin Murray-Boyles, who entered for his first minutes of the game to block the legend on a drive immediately. Still, it wasn’t even halfway through the first quarter before Scottie was noticeably a little gassed, getting back slowly after defensive possessions or staying in the backcourt entirely and letting his teammates operate. That didn’t stop him from a monster stat line tonight, though.
When asked where his innate ability to react quickly on defence comes from, Scottie said after the game that he is always “trying to play defence as best as I can.”
“I’m trying to help the team [on defence] in any way I can,” he said, “whether that’s trying to guard help side, no matter what it is, I just focus on that area.”
“A slight lag” is a good way to describe the way this game felt to start. From both sides, given the fact that the Raptors held LeBron James to just 4 points in the first half. While LeBron wasn’t cooking as usual, the Raptors couldn’t fully capitalize and get ahead, either. Without Doncic, it was up to Austin Reaves to carry the offensive load for the Lakers, while their big man Deandre Ayton, was getting what he wanted under the rim, given Poeltl was absent.
In the end, the Raptors did hold LeBron to just 8 points total in the game, breaking a years-long streak of scoring at least 10 points in every game he’s played in. He didn’t really care when asked about it after the game by the media, especially since his team got the win in the end. While LeBron wasn’t getting the points himself, he did dish it out very well, ending the game with 11 assists, including the one on the game-winning shot.
In the second half of the game especially, the efforts of second line guys were evident. Players like Ja’Kobe Walter, who has been subbing in for RJ Barrett while he sits with his minor knee injury, or Collin Murray-Boyles, who had maybe his best game of his rookie season, showed out. As for the Lakers, it was an effort largely dominated by Reaves, who ended the game with 44 points on 13 for 21 shooting.
The Raptors pulled out their gritty style of ball in the fourth quarter, with Scottie Barnes going nuclear on both ends of the floor. He continues to just do everything for this team, bordering on a triple-double tonight, missing just one assist to get him there. It was these efforts that allowed the team to go from being down 10+ to nearly sending the game to overtime, and the game ended on a buzzer-beater.
It was yet another clutch game situation for Toronto as well, something they are getting used to. Unfortunately, tonight, it did not go in Toronto’s way, like it has the majority of the time this season. In a thrilling end-of-game situation, the Raptors lost the ball while tied, leading to a wild Lakers possession to win the game 123-120.
An unfortunate loss for Toronto, especially given they have a game tomorrow against Charlotte.
As we like to do here, though, let’s keep in mind some silver linings. Apart from Scottie, it was a good offensive team effort from everyone. Every starter scored in double digits, with Barnes leading at 23 points, Ingram just behind with 20 points, Walter with 17, and Mamukelashvili and Quickley with 13 each. Barnes filled out his stat line with 11 rebounds, 9 assists, and 4 stocks, shooting 8 for 16 from the field.
Jamison Battle is another player who has been taking advantage of his minutes on the floor and scored 10 points on 4 for 5 shooting from the field. As the Raptors head into more condensed games to end this week and head into next week, being able to stretch the rotation and depend on guys like Battle will help them in these clutch situations. Hopefully, they end up with more wins than losses, like tonight.
When Darko Rajakovic was asked in his postgame presser about how the team deals with the exhaustion of playing so many times in one week, he responded that they can’t “use that as an excuse.”
“This is the pace of the NBA,” he said, “there’s another game tomorrow. You just have to get ready and go.”
Go, they will, as they play Friday, Sunday, and then Tuesday in their NBA Cup quarterfinal game. Barrett is day-to-day and could make a comeback at any point, which the Raptors would happily accept. Fresh legs at this point would be welcome.
