The Raptors take their perfect record against Western conference teams into LA tonight to face the near perfect Lakers.

Of course, that perfect record is just a single win, against the Warriors in the second game of the year. This is their first real test of the west, and it comes against the best.

Ahem.

So the Lakers are good. Bryant and Gasol have been great, Bynum has been solid and even Lamar Odom has been good coming off the bench. And the rest of the bench has played extremely well - their depth is a huge part of their hot start.

Depth, unfortunately, is one of the Raptors’ biggest weaknesses. After our starters, the talent level drops significantly and no one this year seems like they are ready to take it up a notch.

Unless maybe Joey Graham is the guy? He’s had two straight good games, a rarity from him. He’s been playing with aggression and without fear, and is actually taking the ball toward the basket - something the Raps have been lacking.

Still, joey could have career night tonight and it wouldn’t matter. For the Raps to win they need 3 or 4 guys to have career nights, and they need 3-4 Lakers to have off nights.

Hey, anything can happen, that’s why we watch. But it’s gonna take a near-perfect storm for this flawed Raptors team to near the Lakers in LA.

Lakers by 13.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 7:40 am and is filed under Game Previews, Toronto Raptors.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.