DeRozan has 24 pts as Raptors beat Lakers 101-92
DeMar DeRozan scored 17 of his 24 points in the second half and the Toronto Raptors rallied late for the first victory on their six-game trip, 101-92 over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night.
Kyle Lowry added 11 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in his eighth triple-double for the Raptors, who beat the Lakers for the fifth straight time. Serge Ibaka had 18 points and eight rebounds, and Pascal Siakam added 18 points for Toronto.
The lead changed hands 15 times in the second half before Toronto took charge midway through the fourth quarter on a six-point flurry by DeRozan, the Compton native playing in his 600th game for the Raptors.
Lonzo Ball had five points, six assists and seven rebounds on his 20th birthday for the Lakers, who haven’t beaten Toronto since 2014.
Julius Randle scored 18 points for Los Angeles, while rookie Kyle Kuzma had 15 and Brook Lopez added 13.
DeRozan, who extended his own franchise record for games played, put Toronto in front for good on his tiebreaking jumper with 6:10 to play. He is one of 11 active players with at least 600 games with their current club.
Two days after taking a tough late loss at Golden State and falling to 0-2 on their West Coast trip, the Raptors held off the young Lakers with gritty play from their starting unit.
Siakam continued to take advantage of extensive playing time made available by the injury absences of Raptors big men Jonas Valanciunas and Lucas Nogueira. After scoring 20 points against the Warriors on Wednesday, Siakam went 8 for 10 from the field and grabbed five rebounds.
Lopez led the Lakers to a 17-point lead in the first half, but the Raptors erased it in roughly 7 minutes spanning halftime.
TIP-INS
Raptors: Valanciunas missed his third straight game with a sprained left ankle. … Nogueira missed his second straight game, also with a sprained left ankle. … DeRozan played at Southern California, while starting F Norman Powell is a San Diego native who attended UCLA.
Lakers: All four University of Utah products currently in the NBA were at this game: Kuzma and Andrew Bogut for Los Angeles, and Toronto’s Jakob Poeltl and Delon Wright. … Los Angeles Rams LT Andrew Whitworth watched the game at courtside. So did 94-year-old comic book creator Stan Lee.
