After playing their worst game of the young season, the Lakers will travel northeast where they will continue their road trip against the Toronto Raptors. The purple and gold are still trying to end the two-game losing streak they are now on.

Start time and TV program

WHO: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Toronto Raptors

When: 4:30 p.m. PT, November 1st

Where: Scotiabank Arena

Regard: Spectrum SportsNet

In my last preview I asked how the team would react after their first loss of the season. On Wednesday we got our answer and unfortunately it wasn’t good.

The Lakers followed their first loss of the season with their worst performance of the year so far and are now in the middle of their first losing streak of the season.

What perhaps made Wednesday’s loss to the Cavs a little uglier, besides the fact that they were dominated by them from start to finish, is the fact that LA looked like a version of themselves last season. Lazy, uninspired and weaker compared to her opponent.

Once again, their transition defense – which had become a major problem earlier in the year – was severely exposed, and this time, so was their lack of offensive fire from both the starters and bench units. As Anthony Davis said after the game, this was the first game where they regressed and were terrible on offense.

Nothing came of this game against the Cavs, and honestly it’s best to burn it after hopefully watching the tape and correcting the mistakes. If the Lakers failed to respond properly after their first loss of the season, their next test will be how to bounce back from their worst loss yet. Luckily, they can take advantage of a Raptors team that has had a shaky start to the year.

The struggling Raptors

The Lakers face a Raptors team that is currently on a three-game losing streak. A big reason for Toronto’s problems is that most of their key players, such as Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown, are injured and will not play against the Lakers on Friday.

The purple and gold players should view this game as a get-it-right kind of game.

However, that’s not to say that this will be a walk in the park. LA still has to worry about RJ Barrett, who not only averaged 25.5 points per game to start the year but now has the green light with most of his teammates on the starting unit inactive.

Note that despite not being healthy, this Raptors team is still a really good offensive team as they currently sit 10th in the league in scoring. The Lakers should be able to accomplish this and, better yet, expose the fact that the Raptors are currently the worst defensive team in the league.

The Lakers can only do this if they have a significantly better offensive game from Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell. These names above are worth highlighting as none of them scored more than 22 points in the last game.

Notably, Hachimura and Reaves were in single figures, while Russell only managed 10 points. Hopefully this won’t happen again in the future.

However, since this game should be treated like a “real game,” it would be ideal to see the Lakers get something out of their bench. Is this the game where Max Christie will finally make his presence felt? It should be done with the advantage he will have on the perimeter. It will also be nice to see Gabe Vincent and Jaxson Hayes find their rhythm in this film.

I’ll also look at how the Lakers protect the ball, whether they’re making an effort to improve their transition defense, and whether their shifting defense is undermining for the third straight game.

More importantly, let’s see how determined the Lakers are to end their first losing streak of the season on Friday.

Notes and updates

• The Lakers will face this Raptors team twice in the next two weeks.
• The Lakers’ injury report lists Anthony Davis, who suffered a hip injury last game, as probable for tomorrow’s game against the Raptors. The same goes for D’Angelo Russell (lower back pain), who played the last game despite dealing with the same injury.
• Jarred Vanderbilt (repairing from a right foot injury) and Christian Wood (recovering from a right knee injury) remain out.
• Christian Koloko (G-League twos), Jalen Hood-Schifino (G-League assignment), Maxwell Lewis (G-League assignment), Quincy Olivari (G-League twos) and Armel Traore (G-League twos ) will be about the tasks of the South Bay Lakers.
• Speaking of JHS, he was a popular topic in the Lakers’ headlines on Thursday after the team decided to decline his team option.
• Out for the Raptors’ injury report are Scottie Barnes (right orbital fracture), Bruce Brown (arthroscopic right knee surgery) and Kelly Olyny (lumbar spine strain). Immanuel Quickley (right pelvic contusion) is listed as doubtful.
• Raptors guard Ja’Kobe Walter (right shoulder AC joint sprain) is questionable.
• We’ll be live on playback for this game, so be sure to join us!

You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglanI.