Lakers vs Raptors Preview: Injury Report, TV Stream, How to Watch

After playing their worst game of the young season, the Lakers head to the Northeast where they will continue their road trip against the Toronto Raptors. The Purple and Gold are still looking to break the two-match losing streak they are currently in.

Start time and TV schedule

WHO: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Toronto Raptors

When: 4:30 PM PT, November 1

Where: Scotiabank Arena

Watch: Spectrum SportsNet

In my most recent preview, I asked how the team would respond after its first loss of the season. We received an answer on Wednesday and unfortunately it was not good.

The Lakers followed up their first loss of the season with their worst performance of the year thus far and are now in the midst of their first losing streak of the season.

What may have made Wednesday’s loss to the Cavs a little uglier, besides being dominated by them from start to finish, is that LA looked like last season’s version of themselves. Lazy, uninspired and weaker compared to their opponent.

Once again, their transition defense – which has become a major concern early in the year – was massively exposed, and this time so was their lack of offensive fire from both the starters and starting units. As Anthony Davis said after the game, this was the first game where they regressed and were terrible offensively.

Nothing came of that game against the Cavs and honestly, after hopefully watching the tape and correcting their mistakes, it’s best to burn it. If the Lakers fail to respond properly after their first loss of the season, their next test will be how they will bounce back from their worst loss yet. Luckily for them, they can take advantage of a Raptors team that is off to a shaky start to the year.

The struggling Raptors

The Lakers are coming up against a Raptors team that is currently on a three-game losing streak. A big reason for Toronto’s problems is that most of their key guys, such as Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown, are injured and will not play against the Lakers on Friday.

The Purple and Gold should look at this as a game that gets right.

Although that doesn’t mean this will be a walk in the park. LA still has to worry about RJ Barrett, who is not only averaging 25.5 points per game to start the year but has the green light with most of his teammates in the starting unit inactive.

Note that this Raptors team, despite being unhealthy, is still a very good offensive team as they currently rank 10th in the league in scoring. The Lakers should be able to match this and, better yet, expose the fact that the Raptors are currently the worst defensive team in the league.

The Lakers can only do that if they have significantly better offensive play from Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell. These aforementioned names are worth mentioning as none of them scored more than 22 points in the last game.

Hachimura and Reaves in particular only scored single digits, while Russell only scored 10 points. Hopefully this won’t happen again in the future.

That said, since this should be treated as a draw game, it would be ideal to see the Lakers get something off their bench. Is this the game that will finally make Max Christie visible? It should be with the advantage he will have on the perimeter. It will also be fun to see Gabe Vincent and Jaxson Hayes get their groove on in this one.

I’ll also be looking at how the Lakers protect the ball, whether or not they make an effort to improve their transition defense, and whether or not their transition defense is buried for the third straight game.

More importantly, let’s see how determined the Lakers are to snap their first losing streak of the season on Friday.

Comments and updates

• The Lakers will face this Raptors team twice in the next two weeks.
• For the Lakers’ injury report, Anthony Davis, who held his hip last game, is listed as probable for tomorrow’s game against the Raptors. That includes D’Angelo Russell (lower back soreness), who played the last game despite the same injury.
• Jarred Vanderbilt (right foot injury recovery) and Christian Wood (right knee injury recovery) remain out.
• Christian Koloko (two-way G League assignment), Jalen Hood-Schifino (G League two-way assignment), Maxwell Lewis (G League two-way assignment), Quincy Olivari (two-way G League assignment) and Armel Traore (two-way G League assignment) will all about South Bay Lakers duties.
• Speaking of JHS, he was a hot topic in the Lakers’ headlines on Thursday after the team decided to decline his team option.
• Absent for the Raptors’ injury report are Scottie Barnes (right orbital fracture), Bruce Brown (right knee arthroscopic surgery) and Kelly Olyny (lumbar strain). Immanuel Quickley (right pelvic contusion) is listed as questionable.
• Raptors guard Ja’Kobe Walter (AC joint sprain right shoulder) is questionable.
• We’re live at Playback for this game, so make sure you’re there!

You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.