By NOAH TRISTER AP Sports Writer
WASHINGTON — The Lakers’ last extended road trip of the season was an unmitigated success.
Anthony Davis scored 19 of his 35 points in the first quarter and grabbed 18 rebounds, helping the Lakers beat the Washington Wizards, 125-120, on Wednesday night to conclude a 5-1 road trip with their eighth victory in nine games overall.
LeBron James had 25 points and nine assists, and Rui Hachimura scored 19 points for the Lakers against his former team. Davis – who averaged 33.6 points and 16.4 rebounds in the five games he played on the trip – shot 10 for 17 from the field and made all 15 of his free throws to go with three blocked shots and two steals.
Jordan Poole led Washington with 29.
The Lakers (44-33) are ninth in the Western Conference standings, meaning they would still have to win twice in the play-in tournament to make the main playoff bracket as the No. 8 seed. But they’re making a push to move up. The Lakers trailed Phoenix and Sacramento by 1½ games entering Wednesday’s schedule. They own a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Suns but not with the Kings.
The Wizards (15-62) are a loss shy of matching the franchise record of 63.
Washington was coming off a nice win against Milwaukee on Tuesday night, and the Wizards made their first five 3-point attempts against the Lakers. Washington led 19-8 early on, and the problems mounted for the Lakers when Davis took a stray elbow from Wizards 7-footer Tristan Vukcevic and stayed down on the court for a bit.
But Davis was able to play on, which was bad news for Washington. The Wizards didn’t have the size necessary to deal with him, and Davis dominated the rest of the quarter. By the time it was over, he’d already attempted – and made – 11 free throws, and the Lakers led 39-29.
The Lakers led by seven at halftime, then went on a 9-2 run to start the third quarter to take a 76-62 advantage. D’Angelo Russell scored 18 points and Austin Reaves had 16 for the Lakers, who have five games left in the regular season (the next three at home).
Washington pulled back within two in the fourth and was having significant success with its zone defense before James spun around Jared Butler and dunked to make it 109-105. That started a 12-0 run.
Related Articles
Jerry West reportedly elected again to Basketball Hall of Fame
Balanced Lakers crush Raptors for 7th win in 8 games
Lakers turning a corner defensively with postseason play approaching
LeBron James scores 40 points, leads Lakers to win over Nets
‘I’m grateful to be here’: Lakers’ Gabe Vincent makes return to the court
The Lakers had removed James and Davis, the game seemingly in hand, when the Wizards scored eight straight points to make it 125-120. After a Laker turnover with 17.4 seconds remaining, Coach Darvin Ham put James and Davis back in.
Davis blocked a 3-point attempt by Butler and the Lakers held on.
James was called for a flagrant foul when he made a spin move while driving to the basket and caught Deni Avdija with an elbow in the second quarter.
UP NEXT
The Lakers host Cleveland on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
More to come on this story.
“It took a lot of mental toughness to finish this road trip the right way.” Anthony Davis (35 pts, 18 reb) on closing out the road trip with a W. pic.twitter.com/OjsboGY2kg
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) April 4, 2024
WHAT A PASS FROM LEBRON!
Lakers-Wizards | Live on the NBA App
https://t.co/s78eEoSMao pic.twitter.com/Yw8lRwKt8B
— NBA (@NBA) April 4, 2024