With only a handful left in the regular season, every game is important for the Los Angeles Lakers from here on out, as evidence by LeBron James and Anthony Davis both suiting up in the second night of a back-to-back on Wednesday.
The Lakers were taking on the Washington Wizards, looking to end their road trip with an impressive 5-1 record. It took overtime to beat the Wizards a few weeks ago in L.A., but that wasn’t the case in this one as the Lakers took care of business to earn a 125-120 victory.
Washington came out firing with Deni Avdija and Jordan Poole drilling back to back triples. Meanwhile, Rui Hachimura got the Lakers on the board with a midrange jumper in his first game back in Washington since they traded him to L.A. last year. The Wizards’ 3-point shooting was an issue early though as they could not miss, making their first six attempts to jump out to a 19-8 lead.
The Lakers took a much-needed timeout and then responded well with four straight points and back-to-back triples by D’Angelo Russell. After a layups by Austin Reaves and James, the Lakers’ run extended to 16-2 to take their first lead.
Anthony Davis took an elbow to the eye, which has happened a lot lately, but he was able to shake it off and go to work down low to extend L.A.’s lead.
While the Wizards cooled down from deep considerably, Poole stayed hot to keep his team in it. Davis continued his dominance though as was fouled on a 3-pointer to end the quarter, giving the Lakers a 39-29 lead.
The Lakers got a bit sloppy with the ball in the second, allowing the Wizards to get out in transition to cut their deficit to four. James was called for a Flagrant 1 foul after an elbow to the head on Avdija. He made up for it with a layup to beat the halftime buzzer, however, give the Lakers a 67-60 lead.
It was the Wizards that came out sloppy with some turnovers to begin the third quarter, quickly allowing the Lakers to jump out to a 14-point lead after a triple by Russell.
Poole was the only Wizard that didn’t cool off as he was scoring in a variety of ways. They had no answer for Davis, however, as he beat the buzzer with a dunk to give the Lakers a 101-86 lead going into the fourth.
The Wizards went on a 15-0 run early in the fourth quarter, getting right back into the game as the Lakers missed a lot of makable shots.
Davis and James eventually restored order with some dunks, but what looked like a blowout was all of a sudden a close one midway through the fourth quarter.
It was all Davis and James from there, however, attacking the basket at will. Reaves then connected from deep to get the lead back to double digits and the Lakers would go on to cruise to the victory.
What’s next for the Lakers
The Lakers now return home and have another back-to-back coming up on Saturday and Sunday against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves.
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