The Los Angeles Lakers continue a season-long eight-game road swing on Friday when they take to the nation’s capital to face the Washington Wizards.
Los Angeles fell to 3-2 on its eight-game, 14-day odyssey with a 129-99 blowout loss at Cleveland on Wednesday. The 30-point margin of defeat marked the Lakers’ most lopsided of the season.
Compounding problems on Wednesday was the exit of Luka Doncic in the first quarter with an apparent left leg injury sustained when he fell from Cleveland’s elevated court. The All-NBA guard returned to the lineup and scored 29 points in almost 30 minutes of action, but told reporters following the contest that “obviously, (I) wasn’t 100 percent.”
Doncic’s status for Friday is unclear as of Thursday. The NBA’s leading scorer at 33.6 points per game, the potential absence of Doncic adds to recent woes with 26.6-point per game scorer Austin Reaves sidelined since Dec. 25 with a calf injury.
With injuries impacting the rotation, Lakers coach JJ Redick said that against Cleveland “substitution patterns got a little bit out of whack.”
In addition to the uncertainty in the immediate future from injuries, the longer-term outlook for LeBron James is another hot topic for Los Angeles ahead of Friday’s contest. Cameras captured a visibly emotional James during a tribute video played in his return to Cleveland, where he spent tenures from 2003-10 and 2014-18 before joining the Lakers.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” James said. “Just try to live in the moment and not take it for granted; try to be present.”
After missing the campaign’s first 14 dates, the 41-year-old James is averaging 22 points and 5.9 rebounds per game — both season-long lows for the 21-time All-NBA honoree after his 2003-04 rookie year.
James finished with 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting and committed six turnovers on Wednesday.
Washington, meanwhile, comes into Friday’s matchup chasing a feat it has yet to reach in 2025-26: scoring a third consecutive win.
The Wizards earned a 109-99 win on Thursday over the flailing Milwaukee Bucks, coming on the heels of a 115-111 defeat of Portland on Tuesday.
This marks just the third time this season Washington has won consecutive games. In their two previous attempts to score a third straight victory, the Wizards lost by 14 and 26 points to Phoenix and Minnesota.
Friday’s pursuit of three in a row is Washington’s first since trading CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert to Atlanta for Trae Young. The four-time All-Star Young has yet to debut for the Wizards since the Jan. 7 deal was announced, remaining sidelined with a quadriceps injury that has shelved him since Dec. 27.
This week’s wins over the Trail Blazers and Bucks are Washington’s first victories since shipping out McCollum and Kispert. Second-year big man Alex Sarr recorded double-doubles in both contests, following up his 29-point, 12-rebound performance on Tuesday with 16 points and a career-high 17 boards vs. Milwaukee.
“Just trying to find energy, do what we usually do. … That’s very fun,” Sarr said in his postgame interview with NBA on Prime. “We just have to see what worked for us and keep it rolling.”
One thing that’s worked for Washington this week has been the scoring of Kyshawn George, who went for 19 and 23 points the last two outings.
–Field Level Media
