LOS ANGELES — The bar was lowered so drastically and quickly on Monday night, the home crowd was ready for any Laker shot fall through the rim.
So they cheered when Talen Horton-Tucker launched a shot from atop the arc, burying it with 7:38 left in the second quarter. At long last, after 16 consecutive misses to start the game, the Lakers had their first 3-pointer of the game.
The actual score got blown out of proportion so quickly, the Lakers (29-39) never truly competed with the Toronto Raptors (38-30) who went on to win, 114-103. Instead, the Lakers were largely competing to not make the wrong kind of history in their own building, coming dangerously close to record-setting marks of futility during their 15th loss in their last 20 games.
One night after getting thumped by league-leading Phoenix, the Lakers looked dead-legged against their Canadian visitors, letting them run up the score early. Just six minutes in, the Raptors led 21-2, powered by their probing hands-on defense and fleet-footed transition game.
The Lakers, by contrast, were stuck in the mud on offense, going just 3 for 25 from the field in the first quarter and falling behind by more than 20 points in the first quarter for the second straight night. The team has now fallen behind by double-digits in 11 of the last 12 games, and the Lakers seem mystified why this ingrained pattern keeps manifesting.
“I’m not sure,” said Russell Westbrook when asked why the Lakers keep falling into early holes. “Yeah, I don’t have an answer for you on that one.”
At the finish, there was at least a pretense of competitiveness: A deep 3-pointer by LeBron James with 2:19 left knocked trimmed the deficit to single digits for the first time since the 9-minute mark of the first quarter. But corner 3-point misses by Horton-Tucker and Wayne Ellington in the final two minutes kept the Lakers from getting any closer than nine points.
The Raptors led by as much as 28. Their fans briefly wrestled control of Crypto.com Arena with a “LET’S GO RAP-TORS!” chant during the fourth quarter before being booed down by Lakers fans, who are fighting for their pride at this point.
Gary Trent Jr. led Toronto with 28 points, while Pascal Siakam had 27.
Even without looking at the scoreboard, it was evident that the Lakers are feeling the weight of their disappointing season. During the first half, James earned a technical foul by slamming the ball on the court three times after drawing a foul, shouting in frustration.
It was one of several moments of bad body language James showed as he scored 30 points, but threw passes that went to teammates not expecting them, or made cuts that others missed. If there was something to be said about the Lakers, it was that they rarely seemed on the same page.
In perhaps the most telling statement of all, James declined to speak to the media postgame. Bouts of on-court frustration have been seeping through in recent weeks: The only wins the Lakers have since All-Star break are games in which James has scored at least 50 points.
The team finished with 20 assists against 13 turnovers. Coach Frank Vogel had gone over the Lakers’ miscues in transition defense against the Suns, warning his players that Toronto – which leads the NBA in steals – would kill them in transition. Despite the warning, the Raptors killed them in transition anyway with 20 fast-break points.
The Lakers struggled to get to the paint against Toronto’s rangy interior players, finishing with just 36 points in the paint against the Raptors’ 56.
“You can show them the pressure that they play with all you want on film,” Vogel said. “It takes a little time to actually feel it and get used to it. You want to be able to hit the ground running, but it’s a unique defensive style that you’re going against. And, you know, it did speed us up some.”
Horton-Tucker had the best offensive game outside of James, finishing with 20 points and five assists. Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony each had 14 points in a game that saw Vogel turn to his more experienced players in the fourth quarter.
It was a tough night for the young starters: Austin Reaves, Malik Monk and Stanley Johnson went a combined 4 for 16 with 13 points.
Tough nights have become the story of the season, typically accompanied by platitudes or optimistic rhetoric that the Lakers will turn things around. James’ own silence after boiling over the court spoke volumes, and even Vogel acknowledged that the frustration is becoming cumulative with each slide the Lakers take closer to the bottom.
“You’re constantly aiming to try to push your guys to be better and coaching them hard but also trying to keep them lifted,” Vogel said. “Because it definitely takes its toll on your psyche when, just the amount of times when we’re down 20-plus points this season. It’s been very difficult.”
“Second game in a row where we came out shooting the ball really ice cold.” Frank Vogel on the #Lakers early struggles and their response in the fourth quarter. pic.twitter.com/KLH601PWbl
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 15, 2022
“We can’t be digging ourselves holes.” @carmeloanthony on the #Lakers early deficit and the upcoming road trip. pic.twitter.com/2ZliOiB9ed
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 15, 2022
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