The Lakers looked tired

Luke Walton admitted that his Los Angeles Lakers team seemed tired, while their poor start to the season was 4-6 with the loss to the Toronto Raptors.

The Lakers head coach, Walton, has been under increasing pressure in recent days. Los Angeles has not been as successful as expected by the arrival of LeBron James during the off season.

The team's president, Magic Johnson, reportedly visited Walton last week to discuss the Lakers' form, but the NBA's triple MVP insisted before Sunday's game: "[Walton] will finish the season – unless something bad happens, which will not happen. "

However, there was no improvement over the Raptors, as a disappointing first quarter in which Toronto scored 42 points contributed to a 121-107 away win at Staples Center.

Walton, like his team, was blown away by the Raptors and went in search of the reasons for the loss.

"I'll start by giving credit to Toronto, it's a good team and, boy, were they ready," he said at a news conference.

"I do not know if we were tired of our match last night [Saturday’s win against the Portland Trail Blazers] – not that it's an excuse – but it was like that in the first quarter.

"They jumped on us, they got where they wanted, they took a beat, it made it difficult to stop after that.

"I was proud of our guys who kept fighting – not to mention it matters, they competed throughout the match – this deficit we had created in the beginning was just too hard to overcome."

He added: "It's the NBA, you're going to have nights where the other teams are hot and you can not find it.You do not want nights like that, but they happen."

The Raptors were without Kawhi Leonard, the star player, due to a late injury, but Walton felt it had worked against the Lakers.

"I've played a lot of these games, I know what it's like to think:" OK, this game has become a lot easier, "he said.

"In my experience, unfortunately, when a player like Kawhi is missing, this team ends up winning.We tried to explain that it was how it worked, but it does not seem that we took this to heart. "