Lowry, Ross lead Raptors over Lakers in Bryant’s last game in Toronto

Everyone in the arena knew that this was the last time they’d see Kobe Bryant donning Laker purple on their floor, and they seemed determined to honor that by milking every moment of the game for what it was worth. He’s battled many injuries in recent seasons, his game has declined sharply, and his Lakers are now a lowly 3-18.

Bryant scored 21 points and had eight rebounds in his farewell appearance at Air Canada Centre.

“Towards the end of that trip, obviously, we were physically exhausted, but we were mentally exhausted, as well, and probably thought, ‘Hey, we can go out there and get this win, ‘ ” Tolliver said.

With the Lakers in town to face the Detroit Pistons, Slay took no chances as he bought front row seats for the game.

“I missed shots today because I was playing selfish…taking shots that I don’t usually take”, Clarkson said after the loss.

The cloud lingering over this Lakers team comes in the form of Byron Scott and his team plummeting into a direction that they shouldn’t be going. What makes things worse is that the Raptors announcer himself was wondering why Randle wasn’t playing when he was dominating the Raptors all game.

“This change wasn’t so much based on them not performing up to their capability”.

“It’s really important for kids to understand you can not hold on to the last play”, Bryant said.

This time, Bryant received applause for a good game. “She came down to the game and watched me play”. In fact, Toronto’s defensive rating with him on the court, 103.0 is 6.3 points higher than when he’s on the bench. Anthony Davis is second in the league with four. Toronto led 25-22 after the first 12 minutes.

That reason was Bryant’s swan song as an active player at The Palace.

The Pistons expanded it to 90-65 after three, although Bryant drew another cheer and chant when he made a simple fast-break layup late in the quarter. You have to let it go and play what’s right in front of you. That has started with benching young talent as trades could following in the coming weeks. Metta World Peace was on the bench and didnt get involved as Marcus Morris quickly broke things up. “They didn’t say anything to me, but I don’t think they were happy about it. And I hope they’re not”.

Tolliver said he did not foul Young that hard but understood the frustration. It’s actually the first time this season he shot so well and the Lakers still lost. Whether that’s the GM, the coach or the players, it’s got to be directed somewhere. Minnesota has no intention of removing its last two lottery picks – Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins – from the starting lineup but would like to see Wiggins break out of a shooting slump. When he checked in during the fourth quarter, he scored the Lakers’ next seven points in the span of two minutes.