LOS ANGELES, Dec. 29 (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Lakers may be taking small steps, but they are moving forward.

Shaquille O'Neal had 35 points and 10 rebounds and Kobe Bryant added 13 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds as the Lakers bolted to an early lead and coasted by the Toronto Raptors, 104-88.

Rick Fox added 15 for the Lakers, who posted back-to-back wins for the first time since December 6 and 8. Los Angeles, which routed Denver on Saturday, won on the second night of back-to-back games for the first time in seven tries this season.

The Lakers also improved to 13-19 overall following their third win in four games. Last season, the three-time defending champions were 26-6 through 32 contests.

"With our experience we know we can really make up some ground," Bryant said. "We are moving in the right direction. We took a couple of steps forward these last two games."

Morris Peterson had 18 points and Lindsey Hunter added 14 for the Raptors, who trailed by eight after 12 minutes and 58-44 at the half.

Toronto has lost six straight.

Toronto had no answers for O'Neal, who made 14-of-18 shots from the floor and scored 30 points for the seventh time in 19 games this season. He has five straight double-doubles and 13 this season.

"He was pretty good," Raptors coach Lenny Wilkens said. "That's the quickest I have ever seen him and we had no answer for him tonight. There was a couple of times when we couldn't even get there and double team him."

"I thought he pivoted out of trouble today more than having to go through and power through people," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said.

Toronto hung around early and was within 18-16 when the Lakers used a 10-4 run to close the quarter. O'Neal had 11 and Fox nine in the opening period.

A 3-pointer by Hunter had Toronto within 36-28 with 7:19 to go but O'Neal had a layup 16 seconds later to ignite a 14-1 run. O'Neal had nine points in the spurt.

"Shaq just set the tempo early on and dominated the game," Raptors guard Alvin Williams said. "We could not catch up from that. They got too good a lead in the first half."

"He said he had a good days' rest and he felt ready to play and came out and just dominated from the opening tip," Bryant said.

Los Angeles made 59.5 percent (25-of-42) of its shots in the opening half and took advantage of 10 Raptors' turnovers.

Toronto never got the deficit to single digits in the fourth quarter and trailed by 20 with just over four minutes left.

The Lakers shot just 3-of-14 from 3-point range but were 43-of-81 from the field overall. Los Angeles held a 44-29 rebounding edge, helping to offset 17 turnovers.

Los Angeles rookie Kareem Rush logged a season-high 26 minutes in the victory.