LeBron’s historic streak ends as Raptors lose on buzzer beater

The Raptors started out the game against the Lakers by fighting a math problem. They were getting slammed in the 3-point battle. It’s not like they don’t often overcome that math problem often, through other means, but this wasn’t a “shoot more threes” problem. It was a “make more threes” problem.

The Lakers came out, house ablaze, at 4/6 from downtown, whereas the Raptors were a far more frigid 1/7. You don’t have to spam threes. In fact, the top 2 offenses in the NBA rank 30th and 23rd in 3 point attempts per game. After all, shot charts are supposed to reflect the talents on your roster. The Raptors starting lineup w/ Ja’Kobe Walter swapped in for Barrett was experiencing some unseasonably hot shooting prior to this from three (50-percent), so a bit of regression was probably due anyway.

Regardless of league wide trends, the Raptors were in an 11-point hole early on (24-13). Brandon Ingram’s bump and wiggle game was inch-worming them to some points to hang in, but… the game is about a bucket. It’s true that the Raptors have had the worst offense in the NBA since RJ Barrett sustained his knee injury, and it’s even harder to navigate offensive possessions without the dependable, wheel-greasing, screening of Jakob Poeltl who was out of this game to manage his lower back injury. The buckets have been coming more infrequently, and with more difficulty attached to them as of late.

As per usual though, the bench provided a huge boost. Yes, they did benefit from Austin Reaves being off the court, but credit has to be given to Collin Murray- Boyles who turned the water off on any driving game from the Lakers forwards. Be it from Jake LaRavia or even… LeBron James (who started 0-6 from the field). A bit of shot making from Gradey Dick, some lanes being filled by Murray-Boyles (they combined for 15 points on 6 shot attempts before subbing out in the middle of the 2nd quarter) and suddenly the Raptors were back in striking distance. Barnes was, of course, mixed up in all of this as well. Struggling as a scorer, but filling in the blanks elsewhere.

As much as things started to come together for the Raptors offense, they still had no solve for the ultra crafty off-kilter wizardry of Reaves, and the efficient duck-in offense that Ayton was able to carve out for himself working off of Reaves’ attention. They were getting carved up. They had to switch a lot of actions to try and keep Reaves out front, and the Raptors were getting killed on the back end of those plays by the Lakers size. The striking distance they worked themselves back into evaporated as they were staring down a 12-point deficit with 2 minutes left to go in the first half. Ingram’s shot making stalled and died, so where did the Raptors look? They put on their brightest oranges and went hunting. They targeted Reaves with Barnes on switches. A good idea, and one the Lakers would have to provide a thoughtful response to coming out of halftime, but doing so with a 9-point cushion.

Scared to switch, by the way, the Lakers allowed Barnes a bit more space and he scored 9 straight points for the Raptors. Reaves was incorrigible though, and consistent in powering the Lakers offense forward. The Raptors threw a lot of attention his way, a few different looks, and Walter was giving everything he had to contain him – but to no avail. It was nice then, that a Walter triple in transition was what knotted the game up at 79. The make brought him to 17 points on 10 shots, and a team high at the time.

The Raptors scraped and scrapped their way back in to it. A lot of contributions from a lot of different places. The Reaves thing came up again, though. Raining hellfire from downtown, dropping the ball to bigs, and terrorizing the Raptors in general – they had no adequate response defensively. Reaves had unleashed every part of his game to the effect of 36 points on 16 shots through 3 quarters. JJ Redick had played him 32 of a possible 36 minutes and the Lakers held a 2-point lead heading into the final frame because of it.

It was a difficult opening stretch of the fourth for the Raptors. They battled, they forced misses, but they had an incredible amount of trouble corralling rebounds. It kept the Lakers offensive possessions alive, it kept the Raptors from running out in transition, and it kept the clock ticking, bringing the Lakers ever closer to bringing Reaves back in to run their offense.

Reaves checked back in with roughly 8 minutes to go and a 3-point lead. A triple from Battle tied the game shortly after. Showtime.

It was a great Battle stretch, by the way. Cutting, filling, hitting jumpers. He put up 10 points on 4/5 shooting in very short order. The Lakers collapsed to other Raptors, and Battle was there time and again to finish plays.

Unfortunately, the Raptors offense kept falling to the hands of Ingram. In the past, yes, Ingram has had clutch time success, but coming into this game he was 7-21 on his mid-range pulls, stacking up turnovers, and was part savior/part contributor to the Raptors offensive woes since Barrett went down. In this game, he was slow to initiate plays, slow to move the ball on, and he was missing his shots.

The Raptors found a bit of a reprieve with Barnes in the pinch post. He drove a double, dragging the Lakers defense, and opening up a 45 cut for Mamu, who finished an And-1. A transition layup from James tied the game up at 118 – and brought his scoring total to 8 on the night.

The Raptors last look of the night was an Ingram drive on Ayton, which bounced harmlessly off the glass before the Lakers collected the ball and readied themselves for the last possession.

Ultimately, it was a blitz on Reaves, with James as the release man, who drove middle and passed to Rui Hachimura in the corner for a buzzer beating triple to win the game.

James’ streak of 10-point games came to an end while making a pass to a game winning shot. Poetic, really. Given how much of his early career was dominated by his willingness to make those types of passes instead of taking the last shot at all costs.

Also, Reaves had 44 points on 21 shots with 11 assists. Unbelievable. Even if I have questions about his whistle.

Raptors lose a very winnable one.

Have a blessed day.

“That Scottie Barnes. Good.” – Chelsea Leite

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