{"id":694569,"date":"2026-03-31T10:13:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/694569\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T10:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:13:18","slug":"no-luka-doncic-no-problem-for-lakers-in-blowout-win-over-wizards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/694569\/","title":{"rendered":"No Luka Doncic, no problem for Lakers in blowout win over Wizards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Lakers<\/a> followed the lead of their oldest member, the triple-double producing LeBron James<\/a>, in dispatching the Wizards 120-101<\/a> at Crypto.com Arena on Monday night.<\/p>\n

Two days off between games left James looking spry, with lob dunks and dunks on the fast break contributing to his 21 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds. James was eight for 16 from the field in notching his third triple-double of the season and the 125th of his 23-year NBA career, ranking him fifth all time.<\/p>\n

At 41 years and 90 days old, James once again became the oldest player in league history to record a triple-double, passing his previous mark (41 years, 79 days).<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers star LeBron James dunks against Washington at Crypto.com Arena on Monday.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I\u2019ve had moments more this year and last year that I\u2019ve enjoyed more in the moment,\u201d James said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool to know that I\u2019m at this point in my career (and) I\u2019m still able to do those things, man. It\u2019s super dope. It\u2019s super humbling. And I just try to put the work in and continue to put the work in and those are the results of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

James achieved the triple-double despite playing just 33 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t know what to say. He\u2019s very praise-worthy,\u201d Lakers coach JJ Redick<\/a> said. \u201cI tried to give every version of the same soliloquy about his longevity. But I don\u2019t have anything for you tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

For James and his teammates, Sunday\u2019s practice had \u201cvalue\u201d because it allowed them to clean up some things, do some \u201cteaching\u201d and get some \u201creps\u201d that will pay off with the playoffs approaching.<\/p>\n

They put that into action against the Wizards, but the Lakers did so without star guard Luka Doncic<\/a>, who did not play after being given a one-game suspension by the NBA for his 16th technical foul.<\/p>\n

Austin Reaves<\/a> took over the primarily ballhandling duties with Doncic out, running the show in delivering a near double-double with 19 points and nine assists. Reaves was just four for 11 from the field and he missed all four of his three-point attempts, but he was 11 for 12 from the line.<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers guard Luke Kennard, center, drives between Washington\u2019s Tre Johnson, left, and Jamir Watkins during the first half Monday. <\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Backup center Jaxson Hayes<\/a> was outstanding in scoring 19 points on eight-for-eight shooting, including a three-pointer with six minutes and 41 seconds left.<\/p>\n

Luke Kennard<\/a> had 19 points off the bench, knocking down four of five from three-point range.<\/p>\n

Deandre Ayton<\/a> was a force for the Lakers, his efficient five-for-five shooting leading to 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.<\/p>\n

Each of them played their part to help the Lakers win for the 12th time in 13 games and limit the effect of Doncic\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

Doncic leads the NBA in scoring (33.7 points per game), is fourth in assists (8.2), second three-pointers made (4.0) and first in points scored in the first quarter (12.0). He\u2019ll return against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I mean we had a professional approach,\u201d James said. \u201cWe came in, we got the job done, understanding it doesn\u2019t matter who we\u2019re playing, we\u2019re still trying to build habits for the postseason. So, a good win for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Lakers won handily, it was against a Wizards team tied for the worst record in the NBA (17-58). Washington has lost 18 of its past 19 games.<\/p>\n

For the Lakers (49-26), the game was about making strides from a practice they rarely get to have.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe value is being able to continue to improve,\u201d Redick said before the game. \u201cAnd again, I said this, we\u2019ve placed a heavy emphasis on what we\u2019re teaching in film and what we\u2019re cleaning up in film, because we haven\u2019t had court time to do that. So [Sunday], it was some of the game clean-up stuff. All the guys got some reps doing some things that they probably won\u2019t do during a real game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lakers followed the lead of their oldest member, the triple-double producing LeBron James, in dispatching the Wizards…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":694570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[38124,17378,3757,1582,276,2385,1910,2961,8604,262848,3363,224,5337,3365,1260,449,24566,101645,23885,1628],"class_list":["post-694569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-assist","tag-austin-reaves","tag-blowout-win","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-day","tag-game","tag-la","tag-lakers","tag-league-history","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-triple-double","tag-wizards","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116323261657171649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}