Raptors at Lakers
A west coast road trip that started out promising is taking a dark turn for the Toronto Raptors, who followed up a loss at Golden State with a setback at Phoenix after winning the first two of the six-game trek. The Raptors will try to avoid their first three-game slide of the season when they visit the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.
Toronto fell behind big early against the Warriors and fought to pull within single digits in the fourth quarter before suffering a 121-111 setback - its first double-digit loss of the campaign. The Raptors did not have the energy left to put up much of a fight against the Suns the next night and ended up falling 99-91. “We weren’t moving, we weren’t playing with force ... and it’s been going on a little while," Toronto coach Dwane Casey told reporters. "We were doing some of this when we were winning. It’s catching up with us and we’ve got to fix it." The Lakers are trying to pull out of their own funk and dropped six of the last seven games, capped by a 101-89 home loss to the struggling Dallas Mavericks on Thursday.
TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, TSN2 (Toronto), Spectrum SportsNet (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE RAPTORS (22-10): Toronto not only dropped a game in Phoenix but also lost an important player when reserve forward Patrick Patterson went down with a sprained knee. "Patrick’s like one of those Swiss Army knives. You need this? There’s Patrick. You need this? There’s Patrick. You need this? There’s Patrick," Casey told reporters. Patterson, who plans to spend the weekend getting treatment and is officially day-to-day, comes off the bench but plays an average of 28.4 minutes - logging over 30 in each of the previous three contests - while playing solid defense and spacing the floor by shooting 36.2 percent from 3-point range overall.
ABOUT THE LAKERS (12-24): Los Angeles shooting guard Nick Young scored 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting - 5-of-6 from beyond the arc - on Thursday but was critical of his team's offensive performance in the setback. "We weren’t looking to pass the ball," Young told reporters. "A lot of one-on-one in the second half. That’s weak basketball. We deserve to give the fans better effort and better play. ... We’ve got to do something, because at this rate we’re gonna be just another losing team. We’ve got to figure it out or we’re just going to be the ‘doormat Lakers’ again." Los Angeles went 2-14 in December after posting a 10-10 mark in October and November.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Raptors PG Kyle Lowry is averaging 27.4 points on 54 percent shooting in the last five contests.
2. Lakers PG D'Angelo Russell is 7-of-26 from the floor in the last two games.
3. Toronto crushed Los Angeles 113-80 at home on Dec. 2.