Raptors Win Against Lakers

As a follow-up to my last post, the Toronto Raptors beat the L.A Lakers.

The game had a lot of hype coming into it as fellow all stars Kobe Bryant and Chris Bosh faced each other for the 2nd time this year. The last time they played the Lakers won 107-100, but it was a different story this time around.

In the first quarter, there were 17 points scored by the Lakers and 16 by the Raptors. The first 6 minutes of the quarter had some very flat-footed, sloppy play by both teams with at one point the Lakers being only 1 for 8 in shooting. As the second quarter ended the Raptors and Lakers played more like a NBA team with the Raptors having the lead by 3 points at the half. After a 3rd quarter that saw the Raptors increased their lead to 8 points an exciting 4th quarter began. With the score 86-75 for the Raptors, the Lakers came back with a layup and 3, 3 pointers to tie it up. Skip to the final seconds of the game, Kobe Bryant tried to tie up the game with a long 3, but came up short for the Raptors to win 96-92.

The sellout crowd at the ACC watched as Chris Bosh, Anthony Parker, Kobe Bryant and Lemar Odam put on a show as each put up big numbers. The real key in the game though was the bench points for team. The Raptors had 35 bench points and the Lakers had 30 points from the bench. Key 3 pointers from bench player Andrea Bargnani helped the Raptors to a 4 point win. Number one pick Bargnani has been clutch in the key moments of the last few games.

The Raptors continued their dominance at home using the crowd as inspiration and feed of the Lakers bad play on the road. The Raptors defence held MVP candidate Kobe Bryant to 25 points and most of those points came in the 4th quarter. Kobe also missed a potential tying 3-point shoot in the final seconds of the game. With the Raptors playing this good, they should pose a threat to the Pistons tomorrow.