All too often both this season and last season, the Los Angeles Lakers have come out against inferior teams with what has seemed like a casual attitude and played down to the level of their opposition. But when they went up against the Washington Wizards, who have the NBA’s worst record, on Thursday, they did the opposite.
From the opening minutes, they jumped all over the struggling Wizards and never let up. They led by 33 points at halftime and kept pouring it on en route to a 134-96 victory, even though they were without Anthony Davis, who is out for at least a week with an abdominal strain. They held Washington to 31.9% shooting from the field and took advantage of that poor shooting by scoring 37 fast-break points.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick complimented his team’s aggressive attitude.
“I asked the guys to play with an edge,” Redick said. “I thought they did. We were the instigators. … I like that we were angry tonight. We played angry.”
This was only the sixth game the Lakers won this season by a margin of over 10 points, and it allowed them to rest LeBron James, who had 24 points and 11 assists, throughout the fourth quarter.
They will need to play angry and with an edge when they take on the streaking New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden and the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 4. That contest versus the Clippers, who are a whisker behind the Lakers in sixth place in the Western Conference, could have some early playoff implications.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: JJ Redick liked the Lakers’ attitude in their win on Thursday
