Los Angeles (AFP) – Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan combined for 40 points on Friday as the Raptors clobbered the Los Angeles Lakers 113-80 in Toronto to stretch their NBA winning streak to five games.
Lowry finished with 24 points and seven assists while DeRozan tallied 16 points and six assists in a wire-to-wire victory for the Raptors, who didn’t allow the Lakers to get within 17 points in the final quarter.
Toronto, who improved to 13-6 on the season, led by six points after the first quarter, by 21 after the first half and by 22 after the third quarter.
Norman Powell added 16 points and seven rebounds for the Raptors and Cory Joseph contributed 14 off the bench while Lucas Nogueira had 13.
The Lakers are one of the most successful franchises in NBA history but they have fallen on hard times. They are 10-11 this season after winning just 17 games last season.
Los Angeles has failed to make the playoffs since being swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 2012-13 postseason.
“We didn’t make anything we threw up,” coach Luke Walton said of the Lakers, who have lost for the second time in their last three games. “On nights like this you’ve got to be able to rely on your defense and our defense could have been better.”
The Lakers were without shooting guard Nick Young, who suffered a strained right calf muscle in the loss to the Pelicans in New Orleans on Tuesday. He will be out from two to four weeks.
Point guard D’Angelo Russell was also sidelined with a knee injury.
“We’ve got two of our best scorers out and guys that play big minutes so that puts more of a load on other guys,” Walton said. “We still expect them to play hard and compete and it doesn’t feel like we did a good job of that tonight.”
Brandon Ingram led the Lakers with 17 points, with Jordan Clarkson adding 14 and Lou Williams 13.
After opening a 15-4 lead, the Raptors held a 28-22 advantage after the first quarter with Lowry scoring nine points.
Joseph’s layup with 8:53 to play in the second quarter gave the Raptors a 40-28 lead.
Lowry made his fifth three-pointer in six attempts during the first half to boost the lead to 16 and Joseph’s jumper just before the buzzer gave Toronto a comfortable 69-48 margin at the intermission.
Lowry led Toronto with 18 first-half points.
The Raptors went up by 28 with 7:30 to play on Lowry’s field goal and the ensuing free throw, and the lead reached 33 points.
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