There is no question that the Lakers played down to their competition against the Raptors and Anthony Davis took notice.
A win is a win, but there is such a thing as bad victories.
On Friday, the Lakers achieved just that, defeating the Raptors 131-125 despite an abysmal second half.
Even calling it abysmal might be too kind. They were unserious the last two quarters, turning the ball over, getting dominated on the boards and giving up 37 points in each period.
A game where they led by as many as 26 suddenly became a two-possession contest in the final minute. This was not because leads are blown often in the modern NBA or the result of the Raptors getting hot. Rather, the level of focus and execution we saw in the opening quarter evaporated.
“Unacceptable,” Anthony Davis said postgame. “Yeah, we won and we’ll take the win for sure because it’s hard to win in this league, especially on the road. But we’re a long way from where we want to be. Having a big lead like that, giving them 31 points in the second [quarter], 38 in the third [quarter], if we’re going to do anything, have any goals and aspirations to do anything this season, we can’t allow that on the defensive end.
“We were able to get the win off of talent but we wasn’t able to do what we wanted to on the defensive end. They gave very comfortable coming out at halftime and in that second quarter and made shots and were able to get back in the game.”
Besides the result going their way, the morsel of positivity in this game is knowing the Lakers are a cut above the Raptors.
They just need to show it for 48 minutes. Luckily, AD already knows how to accomplish that.
“It’s the little details: offensive rebounding, transition a little bit, our turnovers led to some easy buckets for them,” Davis said. “But we were able to prevail. We were able to get the win. We’ll watch some film. We’ve got a couple days before we go to Detroit, play a team that’s also hungry and that can play. We’ll clean up and get ready for them.”
No one is asking for perfection and it’s human nature to let go of the rope when you know the other team doesn’t have the talent to compete with you.
Still, things got way too close down the stretch and if a couple of weird calls or miracle shots went the Raptors’ way, suddenly, this would’ve been an early candidate for the worst loss of the season.
All L.A. had to do was come out strong in the first quarter and put this game to bed. Instead, Toronto came out on a 10-5 run and kept themselves in the contest.
AD and the Lakers’ awareness of this poor performance is good, but the best way to make up for it is never to let it happen again.
They’ll have another chance at being in the same scenario on Monday when they play another weak Eastern Conference team, the Detroit Pistons, on the road.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.