After having two days in a row off for the first time since the All-Star break, the Los Angeles Lakers were back in action on Monday night when they hosted the Washington Wizards.
The Lakers were shorthanded in this one with Luka Doncic serving a one-game suspension and Marcus Smart still injured, but the Wizards have been one of the worst teams in the league this season and are openly tanking, so L.A. was still able to come away with an easy 120-101 victory. With the win, the Lakers are now one away from 50 on the year and also one away from clinching a postseason berth.
The Lakers jumped out to a quick 6-0 start with Austin Reaves notably finding LeBron James for an alley-oop in transition. From there though, the Wizards responded with a run to take a 12-11 lead and force a quick timeout by JJ Redick.
While L.A. responded with a 10-5 run after the timeout, they were pretty lethargic overall in the first quarter and faced a slim 26-25 deficit going into the second after a buzzer-beating layup by Washington.
Jaxson Hayes gave the Lakers a spark early in the second quarter with three huge dunks, one of which came on a putback. Hayes was running the floor and LeBron was finding him for easy buckets as L.A. went on an 11-0 run to begin taking control of the game.
Against his former team, Rui Hachimura was giving the Lakers some solid offensive production, making his first three shots, including a 3-pointer. While Reaves didn’t shoot it well in the first half, he was getting a bunch of open looks for his teammates with nine assists at the break, extending the Lakers’ lead to 65-44.
As has been the case a lot this season, the Lakers refused to step on the Wizards’ throat to begin the second half. In fact, they were playing awful on both ends of the court and all of a sudden their lead was cut to just 10.
Luke Kennard hit a pair of triples to end the third quarter to restore order a bit, and the Lakers took a 91-77 advantage into the fourth.
LeBron led a 6-0 run to begin the final quarter, getting the lead back to 20 and allowing the Lakers to eventually cruise to their third straight victory. Hayes finished it off with a rare 3-pointer as the Lakers were having some fun to close out the night.
LeBron led the way for his team, recording a triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists.
What’s next for the Lakers…
This was the first night of a back-to-back for the Lakers as they will welcome the Cleveland Cavaliers to town on Tuesday night in what should be a much more difficult matchup.
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