The Los Angeles Lakers looked to get back in the win column on Thursday night when they continued their road trip against the Washington Wizards.
Anthony Davis was out for L.A., although Washington came in losers of 15 straight and holding the worst record in the league. With that being the case, the Lakers were still able to take care of business easily by picking up a 134-96 victory to improve their record to 27-19.
Jaxson Hayes got the start in Davis’ place and kicked off the scoring with a pair of free throws. The Lakers jumped out to a quick start before Kyle Kuzma settled in the Wizards with back-to-back 3-pointers. He wasn’t the only one getting revenge against his former team as Rui Hachimura answered with a triple of his own.
The Lakers were hot from deep early with LeBron James, Max Christie and Austin Reaves all connecting to give them a 42-29 lead after a high-scoring first quarter.
Hachimura kept going to work against his former team with James finding him for seven points early in the second, extending the lead to 18.
Shake Milton was giving some solid production off the bench and James was slicing and dicing the Wizards as the Lakers continued to pour it on. Not only was Washington missing shots, but players also weren’t getting back on defense. Jarred Vanderbilt put the exclamation point on a dominant first half with a dunk, sending the Lakers into the locker room with a 78-45 lead.
James and Hachimura were both having fun scoring with ease, picking up where they left off to start the third quarter. Christie got in on the action too with a dunk and a triple, and then James had the exclamation point with a monster dunk of his own.
With the Lakers extending the lead to 35 at the end of the third quarter, they were able to get James and other key players plenty of rest in the second half.
LeBron headed to the midway through the third with 24 points, three rebounds and 11 assists in just 27 minutes of action. The crowd was chanting for Bronny from that point on and they got plenty of him the other end of the bench players to close out the game for L.A. Milton continued pouring it on in what was his best game as a Laker.
Dalton Knecht got ejected late in the game for arguing a non-foul call, although the contest was long out of reach by then.
What’s next for the Lakers
The Lakers will close out the East Coast potion of their road trip on Saturday evening against the New York Knicks before returning home and facing the L.A. Clippers at Intuit Dome on Tuesday.
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