"When he returned to the back room, he would have seen Jose Calderon up on the trainers' table, his foot sore, his ankle a bit achy, getting treatment for what ails him.

And while both would have been miserable that the Raptors had just dropped a 120-110 decision to the Los Angeles Lakers at the Air Canada Centre on Sunday, the fact they both played — and played well — was the silver lining on an otherwise dreary day.

"He and Jose, it's questionable if they should have even played," said coach Jay Triano. "I mean, his (Johnson's) back is in spasms and Jose's foot is bad but I thought they were two of our better players. They found a way to have very good games and they played a lot of minutes, both of them."

With Andrea Bargnani not available because of a sore right ankle, it did fall to guys like Calderon and Johnson to pick up the slack. "