Raptors @ Lakers, Nov. 10 Takeaways: Quickley, Barrett unable to star in Hollywood

LeBron James out-starred Immanuel Quickley and R.J. Barrett

Another promising start proved unsustainable as Toronto fell short in L.A. for the second night in a row.

It was always going to be a steep challenge on the second night of a back-to-back and so it wasn’t a surprise to see the Lakers pull away in dominant fashion as the game wore on.

LeBron James took over after Anthony Davis left the game after an inadvertent shot to the face and the Lakers outscored the Raptors by 22 in the second half to coast to victory in the fourth quarter. James finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 16 assists while Austin Reaves had 27 points and six assists.

Toronto, now 2-9, finished the west coast swing of this road trip 0-4 and will try to salvage its final game of the entire trip on Tuesday, which is now a battle of the bottom two teams in the league against the 2-8 Milwaukee Bucks.

Here are a few takeaways from Sunday against the Lakers:

Barrett returning to earth

R.J. Barrett’s first three games went about as well as you could hope for. He averaged 28 points per game while shooting an efficient 24-for-44 (54.5%) on twos and 9-for-17 (52.9%) on threes.

In five games since, Barrett has put up 20.2 points on 22-for-49 (44.9%) shooting on twos and 7-for-32 (21.9%) from deep. After collecting 39 assists to 16 turnovers in his first five games, Barrett now has 11 assists to 11 turnovers over the last three. Some of that, of course, is acclimating to Quickley’s return the last two games.

What’s changed? Barrett’s certainly been a streaky player over the course of his career and so that’s probably where we should start. He was due some level of regression to the mean, especially with the load he was carrying in the absence of both Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley.

Opponents have picked him up earlier and are showing more help to take away his head of steam. As teams get more in tune with the scouting report and are sharper with their own defensive execution, they’re flat out forcing him right more often as well.

Barrett’s 3-point shooting dipping as much as it has doesn’t help, as it only further encourages teams to encourage the jumper and wall off drives. His frustration with the officiating has been noticeable the last few games, though he did get to the line nine times in this game (made seven).

Quickley struggles in SEGABABA

It was a lot to ask of Quickley to return from an extended layoff and play a back-to-back set as his first two games back. He found a rhythm in the second half against the Clippers but just could not get going in this one. He finished with 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting in 27 minutes, after 26 minutes the previous night.

Indicative of a player feeling fatigued and not able to make quick, sound decisions, the ball stuck in Quickley’s hands far too often and he flat out kept the Raptors offence in a funk for stretches. Gradey Dick seemed disconnected from the offence in this one, especially in the second half, and that shouldn’t happen with the way he’s emerged this season.

Chalk it up to some heavy legs contributing to a fogged mind. After Quickley missed the Kings game, I thought it may have made sense to only play one of the L.A. games to ease him back. Instead, kudos to Quickley wanting to get back out there ASAP and tough it out on the second night.

Note: In case you’re wondering, segababa refers to second game of back-to-back.

Boucher boost

Knock down his first 3-point attempt? Check. Good Chris Boucher game? Check.

Especially after the Lakers looked to be wrestling control of the game, Boucher came up with some big shots that helped keep the Raptors within striking distance.

First, there was a nice baseline fadeaway over Dalton Knecht. That was followed by a bit of hustle to get a loose ball and put back. Finally, Boucher was able to attack a poor closeout by LeBron James and hit a tough, running floater over Jaxson Hayes while drawing contact for the and-1.

Defensive issues showing signs of frustration

After surrendering 70 points in the second half to a Lakers team that didn’t have Anthony Davis for most of it, Jakob Poeltl didn’t sound too pleased after the game.

“We shouldn’t be making so many mistakes, or these miscommunications where we don’t really know what’s going on on the court,” Poeltl said after the game. “We should know how to guard these actions, it’s not like they were throwing stuff at us where we didn’t know what was coming. We should know our coverages in these situations and that really wasn’t the case in the second half.”

It’s good to see a veteran in Poeltl hold the team accountable like this. Yes, this is a young team, but the sooner you demand a higher standard the better. If this is what he’s said publicly, you can guarantee he’s been vocal about it privately as well.

The Raptors currently rank second-last in defensive rating (121.4) behind the Washington Wizards and dead-last in free-throw rate courtesy how much they foul. The half-court defence is league-worst, allowing 104.2 points per-100 half-court possessions.

Poeltl did offer words of encouragement with regards to the mindset and the defensive principles, and that at the end of the day it all boils down to execution.

“I think our mindset is in the right place, we’ve just gotta get better at executing it,” Poeltl said. “I think the groundwork is there, we’re trying to be aggressive and do the right things but we’re just not good at it yet. Especially when we get exposed by more experienced teams, they find loopholes and how to break us down. We’re not good at adapting to these things on the fly yet and we’re giving up too many easy mistakes in these situations.”

Notes

• Ochai Agbaji continued to roll, scoring 16 points including 4-of-5 shooting from deep and six rebounds.

• Jamison Battle has cooled off some, now shooting 27.6% from three since the opening two games of the season where he went a combined 4-for-7. He puts up a fight on the defensive end, but there’s not much value if he’s not knocking it down from deep.

• Anthony Davis looked like he travelled early in the game, prompting the entire Raptors bench to hilariously signal for a travel in seemingly synchronized fashion: