5 things learned from Lakers’ 102-91 loss to Raptors

The Raptors, meanwhile, are coming off a 102-91 win against the Lakers on Friday.

“Yeah, and like I said last night, like I said our game plan against Damian, the first play of the game they run Jordan goes under [the screen], and that’s not our game plan”.

Kobe Bryant status on retirement is still uncertain, but hopefully we can have one more year of the “black mamba”.

There is a chance the Lakers could once again fire their head coach after a poor start, considering their history of doing that to Mike Brown and Mike D’Antoni, which brings us to the question: who can replace Scott to save the Lakers’ downward season?

The Clippers try to avoid a third straight loss when the teams meet Sunday afternoon, while the Raptors now deal with a injury to a key player as they conclude an already trying road trip. The Lakers made 45.5 percent of their shots and eight of 25 from behind the 3-point stripe. Nevertheless, he has shown promise and may evolve into one of the league’s premier forward given more time. They were pretty much where I wanted them until the fourth quarter.

Julius Randle, however, had 18 points and 12 rebounds despite a small bout of nausea.

But when asked if he’d talked to Bryant before playing him 37 minutes against the Toronto Raptors, Bryant revealed that they hadn’t discussed it. At times we get too bunched up. Warriors point guard Stephen Curry finished with 24 points, nine assists and no turnovers in 30 minutes, then took a seat to watch the final period. I think most people would define a “limit of 28-34 minutes” as in that Bryant would not, in any game, go over that range.

“You always expect that from a former player, a guy that used to be with you, he feels like he knows your players”, Casey said.

Jonas Valanciunas had just 3 points on the night before breaking his non-shooting hand due to a hard foul by Kobe Bryant. After the Raptors pushed the margin back to 10 on two free throws and a basket by DeRozan, the Lakers made another run. Scott’s hiring was an effort to remind people that the Lakers were once great and he was a peer of Bryant’s who could help rein him in if necessary. “From his perspective, he never looked like he was forcing the issue, the ball just happened to find him every time and he knocked down his shots”.

The Clippers have a defensive rating of 105.6 (ranked 25th), while the Raptors rank sixth for their offensive rating of 104.7. The Warriors’ net rating of +15.0 is more than six points higher than the San Antonio Spurs’ +8.9 – which is the second-highest outfit in basketball.

They opened the game with a 3-pointer from power forward Draymond Green, the surefire All-Star who was left open on the perimeter as recently as last season. However, what Friday’s performance was truly was a microcosm of the team’s overall struggle defensively this season.