After playing their worst game of the season, the Lakers will head to the Northeast as they continue their road trip against the Toronto Raptors. The purple and gold are still looking to snap the two-game losing streak they now find themselves in.
Start time and TV schedule
Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Toronto Raptors
When: 4:30 PM PT, November 1
Location: Scotiabank Arena
Watch: Spectrum SportsNet
In my last review, I asked how the team would react after suffering their first loss of the season. On Wednesday, we got our answer, and unfortunately, it wasn’t good.
The Lakers followed up their first loss of the season with their worst performance of the year so far, and are now in the midst of their first losing streak of the season.
Perhaps what made Wednesday’s loss to the Cavaliers even uglier, besides their dominance from start to finish, is that Los Angeles looked like a version of itself last season. Lazy, uninspiring and weaker compared to their opponent.
Once again, their transition defense — which had become a major concern at the start of the year — was exposed in a big way, and this time, it was more so due to their lack of offensive fire from both their starters and bench units. As Anthony Davis said after the game, this was the first game they were down and they were really bad offensively.
Nothing came of that game against the Cavaliers, and frankly, after reviewing the tape and correcting its errors, the best thing to do is burn it. If the Lakers fail to respond properly after their first loss of the season, their next test will be the answer to how they recover from their worst loss yet. Fortunately for them, they can take advantage of a Raptors team that has gotten off to a shaky start to the year.
The struggling Raptors
The Lakers stumble against a Raptors team currently on a three-game losing streak. One of the main reasons for Toronto’s struggles is that most of their key players, such as Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, Kelly Olynyk, and Bruce Brown, are injured and will not play against the Lakers on Friday either.
The purple and gold should treat this as a “get it right” type game.
Although that doesn’t mean this will be a walk in the park. Los Angeles still has to worry about RJ Barrett, who is not only averaging 25.5 points per game to start the year, but has the green light now that most of his teammates on the starting unit are inactive.
Note that this Raptors team, despite being unhealthy, is still a really good offensive team that currently ranks 10th in the league in scoring. The Lakers should be able to match that, or better yet, expose the fact that the Raptors are currently the worst defensive team in the league.
The Lakers can only do that if they have a much better offensive game than Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reeves, and D’Angelo Russell. These names mentioned above deserve a mention, because none of them scored more than 22 points in the last game.
Hachimura and Reeves, in particular, were in single figures while Russell scored just 10 points. Hopefully this won’t happen again moving forward.
However, since this game should be treated as a “right game,” it would be ideal to see the Lakers get something from their bench. Is this the game where Max Christie will finally make his presence felt? It has to be with the advantage he’ll have on the perimeter. It would also be nice to see Gabe Vincent and Jackson Hayes get their rhythm in this movie.
I’ll also take a look at how the Lakers protect the ball, whether or not they make an effort to improve their transition defense, and if their changed defense gets buried for the third straight game.
Most importantly, let’s see how determined the Lakers are to stop their first losing streak of the season on Friday.
Notes & Updates The Lakers will face this Raptors team twice in the next two weeks. As for the Lakers’ injury report, Anthony Davis, who suffered a groin injury in the last game, is listed as likely for tomorrow’s game against the Raptors. As well as D’Angelo Russell (lower back pain), who played the last game despite suffering the same injury. Jared Vanderbilt (recovering from right foot injury) and Christian Wood (recovering from right knee injury) remain out. Christian Koloko (two-way G League assignment), Jalen Hood-Schifino (G League assignment), Maxwell Lewis (G League assignment), Quincy Olivari (G League two-way assignment), and Armel Traore (two-way G League assignment) will be ) on South Bay Lakers duties. Speaking of JHS, he was a popular topic in Lakers headlines on Thursday after the team decided to decline his team option. As for the Raptors’ injury report, Scottie Barnes (right orbital fracture), Bruce Brown (arthroscopic surgery on right knee), and Kelly Oline (lumbar strain in the back) will be out. Immanuel Quickley (right pelvic contusion) is listed as questionable. Raptors guard Jacoby Walter (sprained right shoulder joint) is questionable. We’ll be live streaming this game, so be sure to join us!
You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.
