The Lakers were as whole as they have been in a while Sunday, giving Coach JJ Redick more weapons at his disposal at a time when their schedule has picked up the pace.
They got star guard Luka Doncic, center Deandre Ayton and backup center Jaxson Hayes back against the Toronto Raptors at Crypto.com Arena. Only Austin Reaves (left calf strain) remained sidelined.
Moreover, it was a back-to-back game that even LeBron James played in a night after the Lakers lost in Portland.
Simply put, the Lakers are a sound team when healthy and really good when Doncic, James and Ayton all score at least 20 points like they did in a 110-93 victory in which they held the Raptors to a season low in points.
The Lakers entered the game having lost five of six and had surrendered more than 130 points in their last two losses.
“This is a very tough time of year for everybody in the NBA right now,” Redick said after his team improved to 25-16 at the halfway mark of the 82-game schedule. “...There are a number of teams that have rotation players, starter-level players, All-Star-level players like us that are out of the lineup or in and out of the lineup.
“It can make an already difficult stretch of the season even more difficult, and the guys have done a great job of just getting through the stretch fighting. And really, we’re starting to get healthy and hopefully we get AR back soon.”
Ayton was on top of his game, producing 25 points and 13 rebounds. He was 10 for 10 from the field and five for six from the free-throw line.
And the big 7-foot center made history in the process. He became just the third player in Lakers history to shoot 100% from the field on 10 attempts with at least 10 rebounds, joining Wilt Chamberlain (March 11, 1969) and Mitch Kupchak (Nov. 10, 1981).
Ayton also became the first player in the NBA this season to record a 20-point game on perfect shooting with at least 10 attempts and was the 34th player in league history to accomplish the feat.
“I definitely give it up to my teammates,” Ayton said. “They find me in the easiest spots ever and I got some easy ones tonight.”
Doncic registered 25 points and seven assists and James had 24 points and seven assists. Rui Hachimura came off the bench to score 10 points.
Doncic and Ayton made their presence felt in the first half.
Despite picking up three fouls in the half and getting hit with a technical foul in the first quarter, Doncic had 18 points and five assists in the first 24 minutes. His three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left in the half gave the Lakers a 55-54 lead.
Ayton was active from the start, running the court, catching lob passes and scoring in the post, which allowed him to finish the first half with 12 points on six-for-six shooting and seven rebounds.
The Lakers will begin what’s known as the “Grammys trip” on Tuesday, an eight-game affair that will keep them on the road for about 2½ weeks. They will start at Denver and go to the Clippers, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, New York and Brooklyn.
This trip comes after the Lakers played five games in seven days, with two sets of back-to-back games.
“We finished five games in eight nights and started five games in seven nights, and tonight’s the culmination of that,” Redick said before Sunday’s game. “So it’s been a difficult stretch, particularly with injuries and certain games.”
The plan for the game against the Raptors was to play 10 players, Redick said, a change from the usual nine-man rotation.
Redick played all 10 players when the game mattered the most and all of them played a role in keeping the team fresh and energized.
Something the Lakers will need.
“I’m not blaming anything, but this in-season tournament cup with that break has just created a very imbalanced cadence of games,” Redick said. “And outside of All-Star break, I think our next two-day break between games is like the end of March, or something like that. So, you kind of have no choice but to prioritize the rest and recovery.”
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