LOS ANGELES — For as up-and-down as the Lakers’ season has been, there’s been one constant: their ability to take care of business against the NBA’s worst teams.
The Lakers entered Tuesday with an 11-1 record against teams with sub-.500 records – the second-best record in the conference in those scenarios behind the West-best Oklahoma City Thunder – exhibiting their ability to avoid overlooking lesser opponents.
That was on display on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena in their 111-88 win over the league-worst Washington Wizards, who dropped their 11th consecutive game to fall to 6-36.
“Our guys have had the right intent, motivation, spirit all that stuff to start games,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said before the game. “For us, no matter the opponent, it’s just about staying connected and kind of playing through adversity. There’s adversity in every game. We talked about it again as a group. We recognize how hard it is to win in this league at any given time.”
The Lakers (23-18) pulled off the near wire-to-wire win behind dominant performances from their star players and Dorian Finney-Smith’s best offensive performance since joining the Lakers last month.
Anthony Davis finished with a game-high 29 points to go with 16 rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots in 32 minutes.
LeBron James had 21 points, 13 assists and 10 rebound for his ninth triple-double of the season, one day after flying to Atlanta and back to watch Ohio State play in the college football national title game on his day off. He showed no ill effects from his long trip Monday, and the 121st triple-double of his career was his first since turning 40 last month.
Finney-Smith scored 16 points off of the bench, his most as a Laker, on 6-of-8 shooting (4 for 6 from 3-point range).
Austin Reaves added 16 points, but on 4-of-15 shooting, and eight assists.
The Lakers had 30 assists on their 43 baskets while shooting 47.8% from the field.
After taking a 59-49 lead into halftime, the Lakers led by double digits for most of the second half on their way to the 23-point win.
With his team leading 107-88 with two minutes left, Redick subbed his main rotation players out.
Bilal Coulibaly had 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocks to lead the Wizards, who dropped to 1-18 on the road midway through a six-game trip. Jordan Poole and Corey Kispert both scored 15 points.
More to come on this story.