Toronto Raptors vs Los Angeles Lakers — Final Score: 128-111

The Toronto Raptors have now lost 14 games in a row, their longest losing streak since 1997.

The Toronto Raptors did not necessarily have home court advantage tonight as they welcomed the Los Angeles Lakers to town. LeBron James was active, did play, and maybe had a few more supporters out in the crowd than Toronto as a whole.

From the cheers when he came out of the locker room, to the cheers when he was announced into the starting lineup, to the sea of purple of gold in the crowd… it almost felt like we were in LA… except it was cold.

All fanfare wasn’t lost for Toronto though, as they welcomed back two of their missing players after weeks without them. Both RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley played tonight for the first time since the beginning of March. They had both been out taking personal time off after experiencing losses in their families, and returned to the team last week to begin conditioning with the team.

So, Toronto had two of their core members back. Quickley and Barrett started along with Gradey Dick, Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown. On the Lakers side, both LeBron and Anthony Davis were available, starting with Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, and DeAngelo Russell.

Toronto actually got off to a nice start, with RJ Barrett scoring a quick nine points and Gradey Dick getting a few nice looks in there. The offence started off a bit clunky and disoriented though, which isn’t surprising given this lineup hasn’t played together in weeks.

Yet, the Lakers still got flashy with it and quickly caught up. LeBron was putting on a show, garnering more cheers than Toronto at points. It’s usually easy to tell when the away team vs the home team scores even without looking — one gets cheers one doesn’t — but today it was hard to tell. The Lakers were getting more noise than Toronto.

RJ Barrett looked phenomenal out there for the Raptors in the first half. He seemed back to peak form, driving to the basket, being physical, and getting buckets. In the first half, he scored 19 points on 7-10 shooting from the field, with four assists.

Immanuel Quickley was the other Raptor in double digits in the second quarter. He scored 13 points on 4-6 shooting form the field and 3-4 shooting from three.

Obviously, it was nice to have both of them back.

Still, the Lakers got up by ten points early on and were able to hold that lead for the most part through the end of the first half. It was 64-58 for LA at halftime.

Gradey Dick went off in the third quarter, after playing the most minutes of any player at that point in the game. By the end of the third, he had 14 points, but also committed a few turnovers and showed his age a little. By the way, a fun fact that was revealed today was that Gradey Dick was born AFTER LeBron James was DRAFTED in 2003… lol

The Lakers only extended their lead though, and LeBron and Davis led all scorers for LA with 21 points each after three quarters. It was a 100-79 point game for LA.

From there, the lead only grew. The silver lining for Toronto was RJ Barrett scoring 28 points six rebounds, six assists in the game. It was nice to see him back and in peak form, something that will be important for next season.

The Raptors ended up losing 128-111 to the Lakers, bringing their losing streak to 14 games total. It is the longest losing streak since 1997 and the second longest losing streak in franchise history.

The longest streak is 17-games in a row, which the Raptors are approaching…

The Raptors will be back in action tomorrow night as they travel to Minnesota to face the Timberwolves on the second night of a back to back.