Alright welcome in to the full recap of a special televised NBA TV game between the Lakers and the Toronto Raptors and the game where Kobe Bryant returned to the basketball scene since April after rehabbing from a ruptured Achilles injury. However, the Raptors stole the show all game long and the Lakers never lead to overcome the Raptors' fast start.
Alright first off I'm going to analyze Kobe's performance in his first game back. Kobe finished with 9 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists. Some of the positives from his first game back was that he was looking to facilitate more than to take over the game and score on his first game back. If it ain't broke, don't fix it and the Lakers have been on a roll on offense since his absence. Kobe could've gotten more assists, but some players were missing most of those shots, Pau Gasol and Nick Young included and they had really great looks too. I won't judge his shooting, Kobe is going to start off real rusty as he integrates into this season, but somewhere he'll find his form. His negative though this game, his turnovers. He committed a total of 8 turnovers because he was trying to do too much while facilitating, drawing double teams, attempting to drive into the lane to get players open and most of those resulted in turnovers. Aside from that, Kobe did little in his return that it's hard to judge him his first game back, but seeing him play for a long time, he'll rise from this and do better.
Now onto the positives, the bench. The great thing about our bench is that most of the players are young and athletic enough to hang around with a team's starting five. But man did the bench outperform the starters today. They combined for 71 points of the Lakers' 94 point total and they gave us a big spark to cut the lead. Nick Young was the top performer off the bench and the top performer of the game, scoring 19 points on 7-16 shooting, I thought he played exceptionally well. Xavier Henry finished with 17 points on 6-8 shooting, most of his point came from him slashing into the paint to score and that's what he does best, attack the basket. Jodie Meeks added 14 points, Shawne Williams added 10 points, and Jordan Hill added 11 points. For the most part, the bench hung around and did its job to provide that run and gun spark.
Onto the negatives: the Lakers' starting five. Already analyzed Kobe on my first paragraph so I'm not repeating what I said. But wow never have I seen the starting five play this lousy. The Raptors starting five just basically wiped the floor clean with our starting five. Amir Johnson, DeMar DeRozan, and Kyle Lowry just put on a clinic. Johnson finished with 32 points, we couldn't stop him in the paint, DeRozan had 26 points, and Lowry had 23 points. The Laker starters were outscored by the Raptor starters: 86-23, let me say it again, 86-23 the Laker starters were outscored by the Raptor starters. Another negative, the turnovers, turnovers killed us all game long. The Lakers committed 19 turnovers as opposed to the Raptors' 11 and it's gonna be the main topic all season long, the more the Lakers commit a lot of turnovers in a game, the more likely the game is out of reach. For the most part, we hung around because the Raptors outside of Johnson, DeRozan, and Lowry couldn't score, although Terrence Ross was in double figures off the bench, he didn't play a good game aside from his lucky circus half court shot at the end of the 1st quarter.
The starting five had an off game, they'll get it together, but for the most part they were lethargic the whole game and just couldn't keep up with the more athletic starting five of the Raptors. It's just Kobe's first game back, he'll answer the challenge and the team as a whole has to try to play a complete game on both phases of the starting lineup and the bench. The Lakers have Phoenix at home, but they have a daunting road game after against OKC and OKC has not lost a home game this season so far, so it's going to be a tall task to knock them off. Anyway, I got my moneys worth today, covered the Raiders-Jets game and covered this game, although it was frustrating that both ended without a W on the column. I'm out of here, I'll see you guys on Friday for the OKC game on ESPN. Like a best friend of mine says: you all stay classy now.
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