The Los Angeles Lakers continue to string together wins when they need them, and they have a lot more fight than they have shown in a couple of years.
On Friday, they hosted the Toronto Raptors, a team that has a mediocre record but possesses plenty of talent and always plays them tough. Los Angeles hadn’t defeated the Raptors at home since the 2014-15 season, back when Kobe Bryant was still its leading man.
The two squads got engaged in a seesaw, topsy-turvy affair that was intense and fast-paced. Toronto went up 25-10 in the first quarter, but the Lakers fought back to take a 10-point lead just before halftime. After the Raptors reestablished a double-digit lead in the third quarter, L.A. went to a zone defense, which helped turn things around.
Anthony Davis and company outscored the visitors 37-22 in the fourth quarter, leading to a 122-112 victory. Interestingly, the team made much of its fourth-quarter run with Davis on the bench for the first 6:03 of the period.
The Lakers have now won eight of their last 11 games, and they’re now just one game behind the sixth-place Dallas Mavericks and 1.5 games behind the Los Angeles Clippers, who are in fifth place in the Western Conference.