The Wizards found themselves in a dogfight with LA but couldn’t best Anthony Davis and LeBron James
The Washington Wizards dropped a heartbreaker on Friday night against the Los Angeles Lakers 134-131 in overtime. The Wizards fought valiantly and took control of the game at crucial times. Jordan Poole led a balanced scoring effort for DC with 34 points off the bench. He hit a deep three to put Washington up by two with 0:45 left in regulation before Austin Reeves sent the game to overtime. In overtime, LeBron James and Anthony Davis proved to be too much as they finished with 71 points combined for the game. The Wizards have lost 13 consecutive games and fell to 9-50 on the season.
With Bilal Coulibaly still out with a pelvis injury, Washington went with Landry Shamet over Poole in the starting lineup for the second game in a row. They led for much of the first half, thanks to a high-paced attack. Poole, Kuzma, and Corey Kispert got hot in the second quarter as they scored 12, 10, and 9 points respectively.
But Washington was giving up points just as fast as they could score them. Davis had 24 points at half with 10 points coming from free throws. LeBron added in 10 points of his own in the first half. When the game turned to the second half, the Lakers turned up the intensity on defense. They forced five turnovers in the third quarter to take a lead.
But the Wizards stayed in the fight. Poole and Kuzma clearly seemed to enjoy the challenge of playing the Lakers, the latter’s first NBA team. One of them kept finding ways to score just when LA started to pull away.
https://twitter.com/WashWizards/status/1763442062894969343/video/1
Despite pushing the game to overtime, the Wizards probably had their best chance to win at the end of regulation. Poole’s deep three to take the lead followed a Bagley block of LeBron gave DC momentum. But they couldn’t close the door. In overtime, Washington’s best chance to take control fell apart after the refs overturned this block/charge call on Deni Avdija.
https://x.com/chasedcsports/status/1763444073036218653?s=20
The Wizards face the Clippers tomorrow night to complete the LA back-to-back. The game starts at the unholy hour of 10:30 pm EST. Washington lost by 16 (and trailed by as many as 27) to the Clips in late January.