With Patrick Patterson missing with a sore knee, the Raptors were going to need to see much better performances from their other units than they’ve seen so far this year to put away a struggling Lakers team. They did not get that, at all, to start the game, but found some excellent value from an unexpected lineup that helped them pull out the win.
This game started very poorly. The Raptors starters looked about as mediocre as they usually do - DeMar DeRozan started the game off on fire, scoring on his first few shots, but the team as a whole was sloppy, turning the ball over and losing the Lakers for open threes (which they hit).