The Lakers were as whole as they have been in a while Sunday, giving Coach JJ Redick more weapons at his disposal at a time when their schedule has picked up the pace.
They got Luka Doncic (left groin soreness), center Deandre Ayton (left knee soreness) and backup center Jaxson Hayes (left hamstring tendinopathy) back in the fold for Sunday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors. Only Austin Reaves (left calf strain) remained sidelined.
More so, it was a back-to-back game that even LeBron James played in a night after the Lakers lost in Portland.
Simply put, the Lakers are a sound basketball team when healthy and they are really good when Doncic, James and Ayton score at least 20 points in a game like they did in a 110-93 victory over the Raptors at Crypto.com Arena.
Ayton was on top of his game, producing a double-double with 25 points and 13 rebounds. He also was 10-for-10 from the field and five-for-six from the free-throw line.
Doncic registered 25 points and seven assists and James had 24 points and seven assists.
Rui Hachimura came off the bench to score 10 points for a Lakers (25-16) team that entered the game having lost five of their last six games.
Doncic and Ayton made their presence felt in the first half.
Despite picking up three fouls in the first half and getting hit with a technical foul in the first quarter, Doncic had 18 points and five assists in the first 24 minutes. His three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left in the second quarter gave the Lakers a 55-54 lead.
Ayton was active from the start, running the court, catching lob passes, scoring in the post, which allowed him to finish the first half with 12 points on six-for-six shooting and seven rebounds.
The Lakers will begin what’s known as the “Grammys Trip” on Tuesday, an eight-game affair that will have them on the road for about two-and-a-half weeks.
They will start at Denver and go to the Clippers, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, the Knicks and the Nets.
This trip will come off the Lakers playing five games in seven days, of which there were two sets of back-to-back games.
“We finished five games in eight nights and started five games in seven nights, and tonight’s the culmination of that,” Redick said. “So, it’s been a difficult stretch, particularly with injuries and certain games.”
The plan for the game against the Raptors was to play 10 players, Redick said, a change from the usual nine-man rotation.
All 10 of the players Redick played when the game mattered the most and all of them played a role in keeping the team fresh and energized.
Something the Lakers will need going forward.
“Again, I’m not blaming anything, but this in-season tournament cup with that break has just created a very imbalanced cadence of games,” said Redick, referring to the NBA Cup tournament. “And outside of All-Star break, I think our next two-day break between games is like the end of March, or something like that. So, you kind of have no choice but to prioritize the rest and recovery.”
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