Van Vleet, DeRozan lead charge as Raptors rebound in decisive win over Lakers

The universe seems to be aligning for the Toronto Raptors in their desire to finish in first place in the Eastern Conference.

All they have to do is continue winning.

After dropping an ugly game to the Utah Jazz on Friday, the Raptors rebounded nicely on Sunday night at Air Canada Centre, dumping the Los Angeles Lakers 123-111 to improve their record to 33-15.

With the win, Toronto Raptors coach Dwane Casey has earned the right to coach in the NBA all-star game scheduled for Feb. 18 in Los Angeles, a franchise first.

Casey said it is a collective honour for the NBA's only Canadian team.

"I think for the organization, to give what we're trying to do here in Toronto, something special to talk about for a weekend," he said. "And to put a light on our program and see what we're doing, I think is the most important thing."

Toronto's top offensive threat, DeMar DeRozan, had to work hard on Sunday for his 19 points off of 7-of-18 shooting. Fred Van Vleet came off the bench to card a career-high 25 points to lead the Raptors.

Although the Raptors have racked up two 50-win seasons over the past three years and are well on their way to surpassing that plateau again this year, the team has never finished first in the Eastern Conference.

The Raptors have won the Atlantic Division in three of the past four seasons and four times over all in their 23-year history. But the closest they came to being the East's top banana was two years ago when they forged a 56-26 record, one game back of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Apart from bragging rights, first-place over all in the conference earns a team home-court advantage for as long as it survives in the conference playoffs.

The Raptors have 34 games left in the regular season – 19 of which have come at home, where they have been practically invincible with just four losses.

Most of the season's heavy slogging is over, as the Raptors do not have any road games remaining in the rugged Western conference.

Heading into Sunday, the Raptors were securely ensconced at second over all in the East, enjoying a four-game bulge over the third-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, who have looked alarmingly pedestrian recently.

Now the Raptors have their high beams focused on the Boston Celtics, whose lead over Toronto is down to one game after losing five of their past six.

The Raptors have also played two fewer games. It should make for an interesting showdown when the Celtics play in Toronto on Feb. 6.

While a win against the Lakers was anticipated, it was no means a guarantee, with L.A. playing much better of late, heading into Toronto having won eight of its past 10, including four in a row.

Casey would have been wise to keep his players away from the locker room TV in the hours leading up to tip-off, what with the NFL's Pro Bowl and NHL's all-star game hogging the airwaves. Casey would not want his players to pick up any bad habits by tuning in to those games, notoriously devoid of any semblance of defensive play and overall intensity.

A replay of Friday's horror show, a 97-93 loss to Utah in which Toronto connected on just 38.9 per cent of its shots, including 7-of-27 from beyond the three-point line, would have provided a better perspective.

The Raptors were hitting the three early on in Sunday's first quarter, going 4-of-9 from long distance to fashion a 28-21 lead.

About midway through the second quarter, Van Vleet accepted an outlet pass from Kyle Lowry and drained a three pointer that extended Toronto's lead to 47-32.

With DeRozan misfiring, hitting on just one of his first nine attempts, Van Vleet helped fill the breach, pouring in 12 points in eight productive minutes off the bench.

Toward the end of a half in which the Raptors secured a 59-49 lead, tempers flared after Toronto's Jonas Valanciunas took an errant elbow in the nose from Julius Randle after the latter sank a hook shot.

Upset that the play went uncalled, Valanciunas then bowled over Randle at the other end of the court and angry words were exchanged.

Both players were handed technical fouls.

The Raptors stretched their lead to 91-77 heading into the fourth quarter. There, Toronto pretty much salted it away after back-to-back threes by C.J. Miles and then Delon Wright put the Raptors ahead 103-86 with just more than eight minutes left.