With John Wall leading the way, the Washington Wizards snapped a four-game losing streak by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers, 128-110, in a game that wasn’t as close as the score may suggest.
The Lakers have fared well this season in the second game of back-to-backs but they were slow to get going against the Wizards and fell into an 18-point deficit that ultimately proved too steep to overcome.
JaVale McGee played through flu-like symptoms against the Charlotte Hornets but was ruled out for Sunday’s game. That compromised interior defense and rotations, which were a factor in Wall and the Wizards having their way.
After the Lakers took an early lead, the Wizards responded with a 14-0 run in the first quarter. Wall kept his foot on the gas, which was instrumental to the Wizards having an answer when the Lakers mounted runs late in the first quarter and again in the second.
Wall capped off his 28-point first half with a stepback jumper over Tyson Chandler to beat the buzzer. The Wizards’ 71 points tied for most the Lakers have allowed through the first two quarters of a game this season.
One of the few bright spots for the team was Ketnavious Caldwell-Pope, who made his first seven shots. That included finding the mark from deep, whereas the remainder of the team struggled. The Lakers missed their first eight 3-pointers before Caldwell-Pope connected.
Kyle Kuzma got into a bit of a scoring groove in the third quarter but it was to no avail as the Lakers couldn’t generate enough stops to ever mount a serious comeback.
LeBron James finished with 13 points to extend his streak to 903 games of scoring in double-figures.
