Tuesday’s game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors was pretty inconvenient. Five of the best players of the match were injured with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet. It should have been a somewhat quiet night in Tampa Bay when the Lakers embarked on an East Coast ride.
Instead? Things tested very quickly. It all started with OG Anunoby’s first time in the first quarter. He was heavily beaten by Lakers guard Dennis Schroder, and teammate Gary Trent Jr. did not approve it. Montrezl Harrell came to defend his teammate, and both teams went through each other, and when all was said and done, Harrell and Anunoby were pushed out of the fray for their parts.
Both Trent and Harrell throw shots, but it seems Trent escapes an expulsion because he was not the instigator. Anunoby was, at least from Toronto’s perspective, so each team lost one player. Even if the Lakers are slightly better equipped to handle this compromise? They had a huge lead during the fight, and although they rely more on their stars than the Raptors do, they have more depth at the end of their bench. The Raptors are now just two of their top five players: Trent and Siakam.
Things calmed down from there and the game went on. The Lakers and Raptors have no existing rivalry, and the players involved have not fought before. All that was needed was one physical game to get both teams going, but luckily the emotions seemed to be running their course.