The Los Angeles Lakers continue to dig a bigger and bigger hole for themselves. The latest set back came early on Sunday, losing to the Toronto Raptors, 108-103.
The officials didn’t help the Lakers cause by throwing out Dwight Howard in the 2nd quarter after he picked up his 2nd technical foul due to a little roughhousing with Alan Anderson.
The Lakers got behind early and had to fight all game long to get back in the game. The Raptors were able to get ahead of the Lakers by as many as 19 in the game.
The defensive issues with the Lakers continued, allowing Toronto to shoot a staggering 54.8% from the field. Jose Calderon led the Raptors in scoring with 22 points and assists with 9. The Raptors got good contributions from their starting forwards; both Landry Fields and Ed Davis scored 18 points and combined for 18 rebounds.
Kobe Bryant had another bad shooting night and didn’t start getting it going until the 4th quarter. Kobe led the Lakers in scoring with 26 but shot 10 for 32 from the field. This is coming off an 8 for 25 shooting performance against the Miami Heat on Thursday.
Pau Gasol scored 25 points, but pulled down just 5 rebounds. Lakers got a boost off the bench from Earl Clark who scored 14 points and led the team in rebounding with 14.
It gets extremely more difficult for the Lakers who not only play a much better team in the Chicago Bulls, they will be playing them on the 2nd night of a back to back (Monday, 1/21).
– Fern Rea “@fullcourtfern” “@raining3sdotcom”
Raining3s 