The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Washington Wizards at the Capital One Arena on Wednesday night to wrap up their final extended road trip of the 2023-24 season with a 5-1 record.
The Lakers closed out the Wizards 125-120, no thanks to the bench. The Lakers pulled LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, and Rui Hachimura while leading 125-112 with 1:17 to play in the fourth quarter — only for the young backup group to surrender an 8-0 Wizards run. Darvin Ham was forced to sub the starters back in for the final 17.4 seconds.
“That’s how you learn,” said LeBron about the teachable moment. “Best teacher in life is the experience.”
It was a relatively lackluster showing from the Lakers, though that can be somewhat excused. The Lakers were playing a 15-61 group, on the second night of a back-to-back at the end of a two-week East Coast trip — that began with a grueling back-to-back.
Plus, mop-up lineup aside, the Lakers have been laser-focused on internal improvement since the trade deadline.
“It took a lot of mental toughness to finish this road trip the right way,” said Davis, who shook off an elbow to the left eye to the tune of 35 points and 18 rebounds on 10-for-17 shooting.
LeBron — who, like AD, was afforded under 30 minutes in Tuesday’s blowout win over the Toronto Raptors — finished with 25 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists in 36 minutes in Washington.
“Last game on a 10-day road trip, coming off a back-to-back, getting in late last night, you do whatever you need to do to win the game,” said LeBron. “So, it took all 48 minutes. Good trip for us. Hell of a trip for us.”
The Lakers overcame 17 turnovers by shooting 50.8% from the field and imposing their bully ball. They were +10 in rebounds and +10 in the paint. They shot 16 more free throws.
Rui Hachimura (19 points), D’Angelo Russell (18 points), and Austin Reaves (16 points) comfortably got to their spots. The Lakers are 19-8 since reinserting Hachimura into the starting lineup. Rui finished March with the highest offensive efficiency in the NBA.
“Playing with LeBron and AD, they get a lot of attention so I get a lot of wide-open looks,” said Hachimura, the former Wizards lottery pick. “It’s easy, it’s a practice shot. I practice with [Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy] all the time and we always talk about it, I got to be the guy shooting those 3s, because with this lineup, I got to be the one that’s open. They can’t leave AR, DLo, AD or LeBron, so it makes it easier for me.”
Los Angeles has the second-best offensive rating (118.4) in basketball since Feb. 1.
“Offensively, we’ve been very consistent,” said LeBron. “The ball movement, sharing the ball. Still gotta crack down on unforced turnovers, but we’ve been in a good rhythm. Playing off one another.”
The Lakers will host the Cleveland Cavaliers at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday then the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night.
“Our focus is on our next opponent,” said LeBron. “We’re excited to get a day off and just get away from the game. “It’ll be great for us to have these two days.”
When the buzzer sounded on their eighth win in nine contests, the Lakers (44-33) sat two games back in the loss column of the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns (44-31) for the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference standings.
For now, though, the Lakers are deploying tunnel vision.
“Control what we can control,” stressed Davis. “Keep paying winning basketball. Keep winning basketball games, and let the chips fall where they may.”
