Lakers rout Raptors with dominant play in second half
Dan Woike April 2, 2024
The Lakers are kind of
kinda
stuck between two desires, two plans of action for the
lastfinal
two weeks of the
ir
regular season.
On one hand,
theirtheyre
run of good play over the last two
or so
months and a favorable closing schedule has given them a chance to play their way out of the back end of the NBAs play-in tournament.
Continuing to winWin and then win again and then again
is the pathway to providing more cushion than a scenario where a single loss would end their season.
But theres another factor at play the health of the team and, in particular,
itsits
stars.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis were both able to play Tuesday in the Lakers 128-111 win,
in Toronto,
but with
a the second seocnd of
back-to-back
games
against the Wizards on Wednesday
in Washington
, and consecutive games
againstwith
Cleveland and Minnesota when they return home, workloads are on their minds.
The constant battle for positioning and trying to secure a spot dictates circumstances,” coach Darvin Ham said before the game. “And so, there’s times where you want to rest them and that’s why it’s so key that we take care of the ball, we take care of the glass and defensive rebound, to build leads and sustain leads so then we can try to have the best of both worlds in terms of our guys that are gonna play.
Again, they know how important of a stretch this is. So they want to be involved in the mix. But also, when we have our opportunities and we have a tight grip on the game, so to speak, we gotta be able to sustain it.
Tuesday couldnt have gone better.
The Lakers dominate
d in
the second half, allowing
forcing
the starters
all
to
watch from
the bench
afterwith
relatively light nights.
LeBron
James scored 23, following up his three-point barrage in Brooklyn with a pain-focused 10-for-12
shooting performancegame
.
Anthony
Davis had 21
points
and 12 rebounds, and
while
DAngelo Russell led the Lakers with 25 points and seven made threes helping push the lead to unreachable distances in the second half.
Russell is the only starter who played more than 30 minutes.
The Lakers’ r
eservesbench
, who scored only two points against the Nets on Sunday, played much better Tuesday. Spencer Dinwiddie
hit made
three three-pointers and Taurean Prince added a pair from deep. Max Christie
returned towas back in
the rotation because Gabe Vincent (knee injury management) and Cam Reddish (personal reasons) were unavailable, and he responded with one of his best games of the season, scoring 12 points and grabbing seven rebounds.
Jaxson Hayes, who
sat outmissed
Sundays game, put the finishing touches on Toronto with a between-the-legs dunk in transition in the fourth
quarter
.
