LOS ANGELES — Even Lakers coach Darvin Ham could acknowledge how Thursday night’s matchup against the Washington Wizards could appear to look.
And maybe his words also served as a cautionary message to his team as to why they couldn’t take their foot off the gas pedal following a thrilling comeback victory and with a matchup against the defending NBA champions waiting for them this weekend.
Sandwiched between their 21-point comeback victory over the Clippers the previous night and the high-profile matchup against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night, it would’ve been easy for the Lakers to overlook the lowly Wizards, one of the worst teams in the league.
It felt like that was the case for much of their 134-131 overtime win at Crypto.com Arena, their ninth win in the past 12 games and the Wizards’ 13th consecutive loss.
“It’s human nature, right? You got the Clippers [Wednesday] night, then you got Denver Saturday, and so this game would be considered sort of a trap game,” Ham said beforehand. “The way you avoid that is you try to figure out ways to sustain and be consistent at what you’re doing well and constantly look for ways to improve and you make it about yourself.
“Once you have a laundry list of things that you’re working on constantly trying to get better at so you can be successful in the big picture, that type of concentration on those things in yourself usually, you know, helps you avoid stumbling over a game in between two ‘bigger games in-conference games.’”
Even with acknowledging the Lakers were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, the urgency that Ham spoke about before tip-off wasn’t present for significant chunks on Thursday.
“It’s just human nature,” Ham said. “It’s a tough game in scheduling in terms of coming out of a huge L.A. vs L.A. game, everything surrounding the game [Wednesday] night. And against an especially young, fast team that has shooters, playmakers throughout their rotation.”
But Anthony Davis (40 points, 15 rebounds, four assists, three blocked shots) and LeBron James (31 points, nine assists, four rebounds) did the heavy lifting when it mattered most, combining for 71 points to move the Lakers to 33-28 on the season – the first time they’ve been five games over .500 since early December.
D’Angelo Russell scored 22 points for the Lakers.
“I’m just happy we were able to hold the line,” Ham said. “Got put on the ropes there a few segments of the game, but once we got it to overtime, guys stepped up, got much-needed stops when we needed to and was able to make plays on the offensive end.”
The Lakers allowed the Wizards (9-50), led by Jordan Poole’s season-high 34 points and seven assists off the bench, to stick around for all of regulation. Marvin Bagley III added a season-high 23 for the Wizards.
And by the time the Lakers tried to create separation, the Wizards were well in rhythm, with Poole missing a 31-foot, pull-up 3-point attempt at the buzzer to send the game into overtime tied at 126.
From there, the Lakers didn’t waste any further opportunities to close out the game.
James chased down Poole in transition for a signature block before hitting a pull-up 3-pointer over former teammate Kyle Kuzma (20 points, 10 rebounds) for a five-point swing to tie the score at 131 with three minutes left in overtime.
“I was taught at a young age when you turn the ball over you need to sprint back,” James said. “And me and AD had a miscommunication on that read and I threw the pocket pass before he opened up to see the ball. And once I saw Tyus Jones kind of throw it, I tried to see if I could get back and tried to make a play. Obviously, it was a big play in the game and I was happy I was able to chase it down.”
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James assisted Davis on a dunk on the Lakers’ next possession for a 133-131 lead with 2:30 left. James made one of two free throws a minute later, putting him nine points away from reaching 40,000 regular-season points for his career. The 39-year-old James is all but certain to hit the milestone Saturday on national television against Denver.
“For me to be in this position at this point and time in my career, I think it’s pretty cool,” James said. “Does it sit at the top of the things I’ve done in my career? No. But does it mean something? Of course, absolutely. Why wouldn’t it? To be able to accomplish things in this league, with the greatest players to ever play in this league, the NBA, has been a dream of mine and to hit feats and have milestones throughout my career, they all mean something to me.
“I would be lying to you if I said it doesn’t mean anything. Because it absolutely does.”
The Lakers got offensive rebounds from Davis and Austin Reaves (12 points, six rebounds, four assists) to limit the Wizards’ scoring opportunities late.
Kuzma missed a potential game-tying 3-point attempt with eight seconds left to seal the victory for the Lakers, who ended February 9-3.
“Obviously, we’re trying to climb,” Davis said. “It’s going to take a lot more winning than losing to get to where we want to be. We’re in the race right there. I’m not sure what happened [Thursday] around the league, but we’re continuously trying to get better, work on ourselves, and get healthy. Get some of our guys back. And while doing that, staying in the fight, staying in the hunt. So it’s a good month for us. And we’ve got a tough month of March coming up. But we’re at home, so we’ve gotta take advantage of that.”
Cam Reddish missed the second half for the Lakers after playing four minutes in the first half. He only returned Wednesday from a five-week absence due to an ankle injury.
“Just experiencing a little bit of soreness and having not played in almost three, four weeks, whatever it was, playing last night, gave us some huge minutes [Wednesday] night,” Ham said. “On a back-to-back, just decided to put him on ice early and make sure he starts the process of being ready for Saturday.”
The Nuggets, the Lakers’ Saturday opponent, have won the last seven meeting between the two teams, including the Nuggets four-game sweep in last season’s Western Conference finals.
“They’ve had our number for a while, but I don’t think we look at it as we’ve gotta beat them for our own personal morale or something like that,” Davis said. “We just wanna get a win and kind of keep this going knowing the position that we’re trying to climb up the ladder. So, I mean, we haven’t talked about it, but I think overall, just getting a win, to keep this going, will be helpful for us. And then in the midst of that, beating them will definitely feel good.