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Raptors in a giving mood

Too often this season, the Toronto Raptors have proved generous opponents to the NBA's brightest stars. And with Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in town, last night promised to be little better. All involved -- including the season's largest home crowd of 18,821 -- seemed to expect as much.

"He's going to score points and he's going to do what he does," Raptors coach Sam Mitchell predicted. "We've just got to try to hold everybody else in check."

In other words, let Bryant have his points. For all the gaudy numbers, it's not Kobe who kills you. It's Lamar Odom, Sasha Vujacic and Smush Parker.

It certainly was last night. The Raptors limited Bryant to 11 points, but they held almost no one else in check, as Los Angeles walked away with a 102-91 win.

Afforded a chance to watch most of the fourth quarter, Bryant finished with his lowest-scoring effort of the season on 12 shots, another low. Odom led the Lakers with a mere 19 points.

"He was content to just do what had to be done tonight to get this game into a position where we could win it," Lakers head coach Phil Jackson said of Bryant, who entered play averaging 28.4 shots and 32.2 points per game.

Only twice before had Toronto kept an opponent's high-scorer to less than 25 points. The likes of Allen Iverson, Rashard Lewis, Richard Jefferson and Dwyane Wade have torched the Raptors for 42, 41, 37 and 33 points respectively. And on Tuesday night, Washington's Gilbert Arenas scored 37 in an overtime effort.

Bryant didn't need to do likewise. Instead he dished out a season-high nine assists, while his teammates, a mixed bag of role players, came to the fore.

Five Lakers finished in double figures, with Parker adding 15. Even when Jackson emptied the bench he found solid contributors, getting 13 points and six rebounds from Luke Walton and another 14 points from Laron Profit.

"This is the NBA," Mitchell observed, "everybody gets a cheque on the first and 15th. So when other guys get an opportunity to play, they're trying to prove that they should make a little bit more than what they're making."

That sort of depth, at least on this night for the .500 Lakers, turned what was a close if sloppy contest in L.A.'s favour.

Tied after one quarter, the Lakers opened the second with a 10-0 run. Including the closing moments of the first frame, the Raptors went nearly six minutes without a field goal until Charlie Villanueva made an inside jumper to bring Toronto back within seven.

The Raptors trailed by just six at the midway point, but would fall only further behind after intermission.

With the Lakers leading by 14 late in the third, Chris Bosh, who finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high six assists, missed back-to-back dunk opportunities. Walton then came back the other way to draw a foul on a tough layup. The three-point play gave Los Angeles a 17-point advantage, a gap that would eventually grow to 22.

"We talk about the same thing after every game all the time. I guess you guys see the same thing, the fans see the same thing I'm seeing," Bosh said, after the Raptors shot just 41% and were out-rebounded 48-33.

"It gets old. And once it starts getting old with us, we'll start playing better. Once we get tired of the fans booing, once we get tired of being down by 20 at home, once we get tired of those things -- that's when I think things will really kick in for us."

posted by: mwiley at 14:27 | link | comments |

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