Lakers close it out against the Wizards in overtime
The Lakers didn’t like what they heard this week coming from the Washington Wizards. On Wednesday morning, their head coach reminded them that they needed to stick up for one another and do it on the court. On Wednesday night, they made the Wizards pay for it.
In the final seconds, the two players who stood at the center of the war of words (but who did not cause it) faced each other. With the Lakers up by three, John Wall had the ball with Lonzo Ball on him. Wall got by him but his final shot missed.
The Lakers beat the Wizards 102-99 at Staples Center on Wednesday. It was Washington’s first loss after starting the season 3-0. The Lakers improved to 2-2, with wins over Washington and Phoenix.
“I did bring it up in shoot-around today,” Lakers Coach Luke Walton said. “It’s nothing personal but we defend each other. If people want to talk about our players, we should be offended. … We’re not just going to [take it]. I don’t know if that was part of it but our guys were much more locked in tonight.”
Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal led all scorers with 28 points. Wall scored 18, making seven of 22 shots. He went 0 for 5 in the fourth period and one for five in overtime, with the Lakers defending him mostly by committee.
Brandon Ingram led the Lakers with 19 points, 11 of them in the fourth quarter, and Larry Nance Jr. added 18, 14 of them in the first half.
Julius Randle scored 11 points, with nine rebounds in 18 minutes. He played most of the fourth quarter and all of overtime, making a critical block on Wall in overtime and scoring the Lakers’ final points on an uncontested dunk.
“We don’t win that game without him,” Walton said.
Ball finished 2 for 11 and missed all five of his three-pointers, but had 10 assists and eight rebounds. One critical rebound came in overtime, as did his second field goal that tied the score at 94.
“It’d be a lot easier to win if I made some shots, but I’m gonna rebound,” Ball said, “I’m gonna try to defend every time I can and I’m gonna find the open man.”
The war of words began Sunday when Lonzo’s father, LaVar Ball, declared after the Lakers’ loss to the Pelicans that his son wouldn’t lose twice in one week. Wizards big man Marcin Gortat followed with a tweet the next day that declared Wall would “torture” Ball for 48 minutes on Wednesday.
Behind closed doors the Lakers seethed at the comment. Publicly, Ball said it didn’t bother him.
In an early highlight Wednesday night the rookie got the best of the star.
Ball stripped the basketball from Wall as he drove toward the basket, then he threw the ball the length of the court to Ingram, who took some contact and scored.
The Lakers led throughout the first period, by as many as eight points, but Washington took a seven-point lead in the second and a 10-point lead in the third.
They still led by 10 late in the fourth, but the Lakers went on a 10-0 run to tie the score with 3:26 left. The run included a three-pointer from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on a tip-out from Ingram to bring the Lakers within two, and a midrange jumper by Ingram to tie the score at 85.
The Wizards countered with a 6-0 run.
Later, with less than a minute to go in the game and his team down four, Ball pounced at the basketball after Beal missed a shot, cradled the rebound, raced up the court all the way into the paint on the opposite end of it, then kicked the ball out to Randle.
Randle isn’t known as a shooter, but he sank a three-pointer to bring the Lakers within one point.
Ingram later tied the score with 0.7 seconds left to send it into overtime. Behind the baseline at the other end of the court LaVar swayed, wearing his wide, signature grin.
“The way we were guarding tonight we were all playing for one another,” Ball said. “No one was playing selfish. Wasn’t leaving guys on islands. … When we do that, play for one another, we have a good chance of winning.”
Follow Tania Ganguli on Twitter @taniaganguli
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