The Los Angeles returned home from their four-game road trip and dominated the Washington Wizards, 125-103.
The Lakers have made it a habit of going down early in the first quarter and this game was no different as the Wizards raced out to a 15-4 lead thanks to some transition opportunities. However, Los Angeles wasted no time in turning up the defensive intensity as they clamped down on the league’s highest-scoring offense and ran away with the win.
The win extended the team’s winning streak to 10 and helped them complete one of the most successful months in franchise history. When asked whether or not his team was tested in November, head coach Frank Vogel believes they were and had their fair share of obstacles to get past.
“I think we were tested. There wasn’t a lot games going in with teams with winning records, but it’s the NBA. Teams can play above themselves, above their current record and we saw that. We saw that several different times this month where teams were giving us their best shot,” Vogel said.
“We were playing really good and they were– good defense, better offense type of situations. You can get beat in those situations and to our guys’ credit, they handled that level of adversity and were able to overcome those games and keep getting W’s. I’m proud of what they were able to accomplish this month.”
The Lakers had a 14-1 record in the month of November, which is impressive when one considers some of the challenges this team has already faced. Injuries to key rotation players like Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley could have costed Los Angeles some wins, but Vogel did a good job of managing the lineup and getting the rest of his bench to step up.
The Lakes were fortunate to start the 2019-20 NBA season with a softer schedule as most teams take a while to really gel and build chemistry with each other. This roster has already proven they work well together and it was apparent in some of their close wins against teams that most consider to be lesser competition.
Now at 17-2, the purple and gold have some cushion to work with as they hit a much tougher stretch of their schedule.
Their next opponent, the Dallas Mavericks, is a team that already gave them issues before and may prove to be more dangerous this time around as Luka Doncic is currently playing the best basketball of his young career.