The Los Angeles Lakers did not put up much of a fight on Friday night in Toronto. LA-native DeMar DeRozan and the Toronto Raptors raced out to an 11-point lead in the first quarter before the Lakers' bench came in and seemingly got the game under control.
After the first quarter, the Lakers only trailed by six points. The Raptors, however, did not relent.
By the halftime whistle, the Lakers trailed by 21 points. Toronto shot 60 percent in the first half and only committed three turnovers, so the Raptors played a clean game and built a sizable lead. Just about the only silver lining in the first half was that rookie Brandon Ingram, who had started for the second game in a row in place of injured Nick Young, found his shooting rhythm and scored nine points in the first half. Ingram finished with 16 points on 8-16 shooting from the field, though he only made one of his five three-point attempts. The rookie also contributed six rebounds and two assists.
In the third quarter, the Raptors outscored the Lakers for the third straight quarter. But this time, it was only one point, so the Lakers did improve. LA trailed by 22 points with 12 minutes remaining.
Again, the Raptors refused to their feet off the gas. With six minutes remaining in the game, Toronto led by 26 points with six minutes remaining in the game. With the Lakers scheduled to play on Saturday night in Memphis, Lakers coach Luke Walton had already waived the white flag by that point, as Marcelo Huertas, Thomas Robinson and Metta World Peace were all on the floor.
Toronto point guard Kyle Lowry finished with 24 points and seven assists in the victory. DeRozan added 16 points and six assists.
Eventually, the final buzzer sounded, and the Raptors had considerably more points than the Lakers: 113-80.
