After a big win over the L.A. Clippers, the Los Angeles Lakers returned to the court on Tuesday night looking to build some momentum when they hosted the Toronto Raptors.
A win would get the Lakers back to .500 on the season, and they got exactly that, hanging on for a slim 132-131 victory.
Anthony Davis got off to a quick start for the Lakers with their first five points, although everyone else was cold so the Raptors took an early 9-5 lead before Cam Reddish finally connected on a triple.
Davis continued to go to work down low early against a smaller Raptors team that was missing starting center Jakob Poeltl. Christian Wood then came in and made an immediate impact with five straight points for L.A.
After Davis and former Laker Dennis Schroder exchanged triples, the Lakers led 28-24 at the end of the first quarter.
D’Angelo Russell got involved to begin the second with a 3-pointer, although both teams started to go cold from there. LeBron James was actually scoreless until midway through the second quarter when he went to the basket and earned a three-point play. James then hit a deep one from the logo to extend L.A.’s lead to eight.
The Raptors new additions R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley did a nice job from there offensively to actually take a 53-51 lead at halftime.
The Lakers were careless with the ball to begin the third quarter, allowing the Raptors to build their lead up to seven on a Barrett triple. Reddish and Taurean Prince responded from there with triples of their own, which was much-needed considering Quickley then connected on back-to-back shots from deep.
James had a nice response from there with back-to-back layups, including a three-point play, and then Prince hit another 3 to bring the Lakers back within two and force a Raptors timeout.
The Laker run continued from there with Max Christie and Russell hitting triples and then Jarred Vanderbilt and Russell finishing in transition to put them up 84-78. Led by Schroder though, the Raptors closed the quarter strong to take a slim 89-88 lead into the fourth.
Wood came up big to begin the final quarter with a pair of triples to help the Lakers regain the lead. Toronto stayed hot though while Davis got going offensively again, keeping things close with James drilling a 3 to tie it at 105.
Quickley eventually hurt his team with some costly fouls, including a flagrant to foul out of the game. That allowed the Lakers to again take the lead back with Austin Reaves finally contributing offensively after a slow start to the night.
The Raptors hung around though and found themselves trailing by one in the final minute. Davis came up huge for L.A. though with a block and then a pair of free throws. The Raptors then turned it over, allowing the Lakers to hang on for the win.
Toronto played the foul game late and hit some shots to stay within reach although Davis made some clutch free throws to close it out.
Up next for the Lakers
The Lakers continue their home-heavy January schedule on Thursday night when they host the Phoenix Suns at 7 p.m. PT.
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