The Los Angeles Lakers took care of the Washington Wizards early on Sunday night, blowing them out 130-119. Anthony Davis continued his recent dominant run, setting a new season-high in scoring for the second consecutive game and establishing a new Laker-high with 55 points (his career-high is 59) to go with 17 rebounds on the night.
LeBron James added a “quiet” 29 points, 8 rebounds in his 34 minutes of play, and Lonnie Walker IV continues to make the case as the third-best player on this team with 20 points on 70% shooting. All three helped the Lakers move to 10-12 overall, and undefeated to start this road trip.
L.A. started the game off right with three-pointers from LeBron and Walker. In the first ten games of the season, they averaged 22.3% from deep and in the last ten, they’ve improved to 37.2%. For Washington, the game changed early when Bradley Beal injured his hamstring. He went to the locker room and never returned. Los Angeles was able to secure a comfortable six-point lead after one, partly because Davis also came out strong again, scoring 10 points in the first. The Lakers are still sub-.500, but if he continues this trajectory, he will be in MVP talks and could make 2002-23 a career year.
Up by six entering the second, the Lakers never took their foot off the gas. They extended their lead to 21 at one point and ended the half ahead, 68-50. Daniel Gafford attacked the paint during the non-AD minutes and scored the first 8 points of the quarter for Washington, but that was the only bright spot the Wizards had in the first half. LeBron and AD were sensational, with a combined 39 points, 12 rebounds and each had a plus/minus of +16. With both playing this well, victory felt inevitable.
Sport Analysis 