Last-Minute News, Rumours, Reports before Toronto Raptors Los Angeles Lakers NBA Game

This was supposed to be Kawhi Leonard's weekend out there in Los Angeles tonight against the Lakers and then Monday night, the return versus the Los Angeles Clippers, but it's been confirmed he will not play in either one. Chris Haynes reported on Thursday that Kawhi's knee will keep him out for at least three to four weeks. There's been multiple different reports on Kawhi, but nonetheless, we know he's not playing in the next two games. So the Raptors walk into LA with Scottie Barnes, who just put up a career high out there on Friday and the Raptors still lost that game He had 41 points, which of course is a career high that he smoked by 6. And then on the other side, you have a Lakers team that was up 25 points on Friday and then ended up somehow losing that game by 17. So this is two hungry, talented teams coming into Sunday night that are looking to recover from ugly games out there on Friday. But let's take a look at who's going to be suiting up out there on the court. As I just mentioned, Kawhi Leonard is the biggest name who's going to be out for the Toronto Raptors. Darko said on Friday that they'll see where he's at in seven days, and only then will they make a plan. To quote him directly, he said, right now, he's going through all the treatments. So for everyone questioning about what's actually going on and the conflicting reports out there, right now, it's just treatment, then testing, and then we should have some more information. Without him this week, the Toronto Raptors are 1-1. They had a 30-point victory over Orlando on Wednesday, and then they end up losing to the Magic with some controversial refereeing, but also some good shooting out there from the Magic. Toronto also continues to be without Nate Biddle, who's recovering from that foot injury, and Malachi Smith, who is down with the G League. On the other side, the Lakers list is pretty healthy. Adu Thiam is out with his knee injury, Zaire Williamson is questionable with his foot, and then Cameron Carter is off the injury report. Luka Doncic is also confirmed to be in for tonight's game as he sat Wednesday due to some back tightness, but he is back rolling played on Friday and scored 37. So LA gets their top guy back. We're still waiting on Kawhi Leonard, so a lot is going to be put on Scottie once again. And Scottie Barnes certainly has been picking up the slack. Of course, he had the bad game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but has been dominant in the two games since. Obviously, we touched on his career-high 41 points, and Josh Loomis said, And after the game, that Barnes was exceptional, probably the best game he's ever had. To bounce back after that zero-point game where he went 0-for-12 from the field is very impressive and a testament to the mental toughness he has, especially without Kawhi Leonard. It was also his 16th game with more than 30 points, five rebounds, and five assists, which ties DeMar DeRozan for the fourth most in Raptors history. But the sad part about all that is the Toronto Raptors still lost, and they fall to 3-2 on the season. Of course, a part of that was the free throw line. Orlando shot 29 free throws, and Toronto shot just 15. And Darko Rajakovic did not hold back after the game. Neither did a lot of Raptors fans, including myself. To remind you of the last quote, Darko said, a player that gets 34 shots in a game and who scores 41 points and goes to the free throw line just three times, that's kind of BS, to be honest with you. And if that sounds familiar, it should, because Darko Rajakovic has went off on the refs once before and the team he did it against the team that the Raptors were facing where you know Scottie Barnes was undermined by the referees once again was the Los Angeles Lakers on January 2024 a one-point loss in Los Angeles the Lakers took 36 free throws and the Toronto Raptors took just 13 the player that was once again wronged by the referees wronged by the foul distribution was Scottie Barnes who took 20 shots in that game and only took two free throws Darko said what he thought, he ended up getting fined $25,000, but nonetheless, especially where the tensions are heightened a little bit, Darko, I wouldn't be shocked if he's going to be on the refs heading in right from the jump out there in this game against the Lakers. But of course, we can't expect Scottie Barnes to be dropping career highs on every single night in order for the Raptors to have a chance. So who else is going to step up for this team? Things start off with RJ Barrett, who had his worst night of the season against Orlando on Friday. He only scored 9 points on 3 of 10 shooting with 5 turnovers. It was a really weird game for RJ in the first quarter. He got tangled up with Desmond Bain. He got in a couple scuffles with Bain, with Black. A few guys in the Orlando Magic really tried to get under RJ Barrett's skin, and it seemed to be effective, as he certainly had a very, very off night to his standards. I've seen a lot of narratives about RJ Barrett, plus-minus net ratings, and all of these different things, but RJ Barrett's impact on this team matters more than just his scoring. But the numbers show he is elevating his teammates. His teammates are playing better when they're playing with RJ Barrett. First, we can look at Jakob Poeltl, who is a plus 14.3 in 75 possessions or per 75 possessions, which is insane given how poor Jakob Poeltl has played over the course of the season. When him and RJ Barrett are on the court, they're a plus 14.3. And then without him, Jakob Poeltl is a minus 8.8. And you can also see the duo, the dynamic guys that came over from the New York Knicks. Him and Immanuel Quickley have been super effective playing on the court together, as when they share the court, they're a plus 13.3 per 75 possessions a season. And speaking of Quickley, he's going to have to step up as well. He had a good game out there on Friday, had 17 points, 8 assists. But the really encouraging stat coming into this one is Immanuel Quickley has played very well against the Los Angeles Lakers out there in the past. Over his last six games against the Los Angeles Lakers, Immanuel Quickley is shooting 49%, which is 9% better from what he's been doing over the course of this year. So don't be shocked if Immanuel Quickley has another hot night against Los Angeles. But now we also have to look at Jakob Poeltl, who's been a huge topic of discussion over the past week. On Wednesday, had two points, had five fouls and 10 minutes of action, was an ugly one, and was the breaking point for a lot of people in terms of the support for Big Yak. While he certainly wasn't perfect, the defense could be improved, especially the rim protection where we expect him to be solid. He definitely did a 180 in terms of his performance on Friday at 12 points, 11 rebounds, and six of those were on the offensive glass. And one guy that I feel like isn't talked about enough is Allen Graves, who in his limited role and his limited minutes has been playing very, very well. Has 18 rebounds, five blocks in his first five games in just 72 minutes. Now Graves is a guy still learning the defensive schemes. He's a little bit helter helter skelter, he fouls a lot. From the eye test, from what I'm seeing, I love the energy. I like how quickly he moves his feet, even if he does get lost every now and then. I think with reps, he's going to be a very effective and beneficial player for the Toronto Raptors in the short term rather than just the long. And Darko came out on Wednesday and said that Alan Graves is probably going to get more minutes than they initially planned. So obviously, the Toronto Raptors have the talent. They have a lot of great guys on this team, even without Kawhi Leonard, but needs to show up on nights where you're also getting a good Scottie Barnes performance. But what are the Raptors dealing with in this Los Angeles Lakers team? Because it looks a lot different than it has in years past. And the biggest notable omission from their lineup is, of course, LeBron James, who is now with the Philadelphia 76ers. He signed that two-year $8 million deal to end up with Philly, which is coming as a surprise. The Sixers are playing well, but the Los Angeles Lakers are now Luka Doncic's team. And they looked really good to start off the season. They began the year 4-1, which included two wins over the Los Angeles Clippers, 125-117 at home. And then on the road, they won the road game on Wednesday with Luka Doncic sitting out. But then came Friday out there in SF where they faced off against the Golden State Warriors, a team that they smoked in game one of this season. And it looked like it would be another blowout for the Lakers as they were up 38-15 after the first quarter. And Luka Doncic had 21 in the first himself. But they had a generational collapse in the second quarter, and by halftime, that game was tied, because they went 0-9 from the three-point line out there in the second. From the moment that they led by 25, the Warriors ended up outscoring them 97-55. And they lost by 17, the Warriors bench outscored them 50-7 for the rest of this game, and it's fairly telling in terms of how this Lakers roster is constructed. They do have a ton of talent. Austin Reeves had 21 points, but also turned it over 8 times. They also have Collin Sexton, who went 0 for 6 and didn't really score at all. But even with the talent, even with the new acquisitions, the new players that they have in there, Lakers fans and analysts are feeling a little bit shaky after that loss against the Warriors. James Worthy came out and said in the postgame show, not knowing how to keep that lead, that bothers me a little bit. So that's the Lakers. They have a superstar in Luka Doncic who has one of the most ridiculous usage rates in NBA history right now, but he can single-handedly beat you any single night. However, if things aren't going right, if he cools off a little bit, if you can clamp him up like the elite wing defenders the Toronto Raptors have, then things can go right for the Raptors in a very big way. Not a lot of guys that can reliably back him up out there on this team. Reeves can score. Walker Kessler is good. There are some role players that are good on the Los Angeles Lakers, but this team runs on Luka. Also, I want to note, if you're enjoying this video, make sure you guys hit that like button. It's completely free down below. The most likes we've had on a video so far over the course of October, jumping into November here right now, was 421. We want to beat that out there in this fit, so make sure you guys hit that like button. So where does Toronto go to beat the Los Angeles Lakers? Beat a team that... Has been very good to start off the season, but feels a little bit wobbly after the loss to the Warriors. The first is on the glass. The Los Angeles Lakers have a bench that scored seven points on Friday and can't afford to give away second chances. This is going to be a key for the Toronto Raptors almost every night because it's a good heuristic for how well the big man position played for the Raptors, whether it's Jakob Poeltl, who has the microscope on him right now from Raptors fans, CMB, and Trace Jackson Davis. And the second is how aggressive they can pursue the ball handlers out there on the Lakers because guys like Austin Reeves, But with that aggressive defense, you need to recover well. Against the Magic out there on Friday, they ended up making 18 of 34 of their threes because Toronto Raptors couldn't keep up with the pace that Orlando Magic were moving the basketball because they were aggressively ball hawking every single possession. And the Lakers do have some very strong shooters out there on their team. Now, in their last game, they went 11 of 39 from behind the three-point line, so if we get that version tonight, I'm not too worried if I'm a Toronto Raptors fan, but... If we get Luka extremely on fire, if we get Reeves knocking down shots, if we get Kessler spacing the floor, doing different things, then the Raptors could be in tough shape. That's the real determining factor of this game. Not just Luka's points, because he's going to get those, but it's really going to be on how many shots he ends up taking. We have some good defenders, but Luka Doncic is Luka Doncic, but it's the other player stepping up around Luka. And one thing that's very important to note is Luka Doncic has been very... Good against the Toronto Raptors in the past. He's averaged 28 points per game in his last 13 career regular season games against Toronto. He's ended up winning eight of them. That matchup between Scottie Barnes and Luka Doncic is going to be heated. It's going to have all the eyeballs, at least for me, out there in this game. On Friday, it was almost even. Scottie Barnes had 41 points. Luka Doncic scored 37. But Scottie also fouled out in that game. So if he's chasing Luka for 40 minutes, the whistle will matter again. And forgetting about the players individually, the Toronto Raptors have struggled against the Lakers, especially last season. The Lakers won both games last year. And Toronto in December, Austin Reeves scored 44 points on 13 of 21 shooting. One of the more insane games of the season last year. If you remember, it was just absolutely ridiculous, and Rui Hachimura ended up hitting a game-winning 3 off an assist from LeBron James to beat the Toronto Raptors 123-120. Now, LeBron had a good game that night, but Luka Doncic was out, so the Raptors had the injury advantage. You know, Pirtle didn't play for the Toronto Raptors, but nonetheless, they ended up losing that game. Then later in January, the Toronto Raptors ended up going down to LA, so on the road, ended up losing by 17 to Los Angeles. But of course, that was a team with LeBron James, a different roster. The Raptors didn't have Kawhi. We won't have Kawhi tonight either, but very different rosters, very different makeups. There's a lot of good role players picked up by Los Angeles, one of them being a former Toronto Raptor, Sandro Mamukelashvili, and I'm interested to see how this whole roster ends up playing out against this Raptor squad. So will Toronto be able to pull this thing out against the Lakers? Well, it's going to come down to a few things. Obviously, Scottie Barnes needs to play well. He can't have a performance like he had a week ago. He needs to be better the same way he has in the two games against the Orlando Magic. But you need other players to step up. And as I mentioned in the vid, the player I'm really watching is Emmanuel Quickly, who's been very, very good against the Los Angeles Lakers in previous outings. And one thing that should be noted, it's the first game of a back-to-back. They're going to play the Clippers tomorrow night. Monday was supposed to be Kawhi Leonard's return to the Clippers, but nonetheless, we're going to have to wait for that. I guess till next season, because we don't play LA again or the Clippers again until next year back in LA. We'll have a full preview on that Clippers game coming out tomorrow, but nonetheless, Brandon Ingram is also out for that squad. So it will be an interesting game, even with the missing stars on both sides. But obviously, we cannot look past tonight. against the Lakers. This is a huge game for the Toronto Raptors. You don't want to get back to .500 in terms of the record. The Eastern Conference has a lot of good teams this season, and you need to stay on top of it early, especially in games where Kawhi Leonard's out. There are a couple of records to watch. You know, Scottie might be able to pass DeMar DeRozan for the most 30 point, 5 rebound, 5 assist games, you know, so we'll keep a look at that. And Immanuel Quickley's also 16 assists from passing TJ Ford for 13th on the Raptors' all-time list. Both of these are probably long shots to happen tonight, but you never know. Scottie Barnes has been playing fantastic and Immanuel Quickley. You know, can he have another big performance against the Lakers? We shall see. So yes, as I basically say in every preview, I believe the Toronto Raptors can win this. They will win this. And this is going to be a big test because on the road against a very good Western Conference team, you can make a statement right now early on in the season without Kawhi Leonard after losing a game to the Orlando Magic. These are the type of games that NBA Championship contenders win. But it can't just be one guy, and you can't be too worried about the referees. I think this is going to be a poorly refereed game once again. The Raptors foul a lot anyways, but the Lakers notoriously get the whistle. So we were all making a fuss, and I was as well, about the rest. The Raptors have to overcome that. They have to overcome the road. They have to overcome Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves. All these dudes out there in L.A. and come out and get the victory. If they can build some momentum out there on this road trip, that will be a huge moment of the season. For the Toronto Raptors, I'm very, very excited with how things are going. But I want to hear from you. Who do you think is going to score more points in tonight's game? Scottie Barnes or Luka Doncic? Comment down below. And if you want to break down on the Raptors' last loss to the Orlando Magic and how Darko Rajakovic and a lot of people were reacting to it, check out this video right here.