The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Washington Wizards 125-120 on Wednesday night, with Anthony Davis contributing 19 of his 35 points and 18 rebounds in the first quarter. This victory gives the Lakers their eighth win in their last nine games.

  The Lakers defeated their former opponent with 25 points from LeBron James and 9 assists from Rui Hachimura. Hachimura also scored 19 points. Davis made all fifteen of his free throw attempts and finished with a field goal percentage of 10%. Among Washington’s scorers, Jordan Poole had 29. If the Lakers want to make it to the main playoff bracket, they’ll need to win the play-in tournament twice. They’re now ninth in the Western Conference. They are, nevertheless, actively attempting to advance. After two games on Tuesday, Los Angeles found itself 1.5 games behind Sacramento and Phoenix. Only one more loss separates the Wizards from tying the club record of sixty-three. Following Tuesday night’s impressive victory over Milwaukee, the Washington Wizards took an early lead against the Los Angeles Lakers by making all five of their three-point attempts. The Wizards’ 7-footer Tristan Vukcevic elbowed Davis in the face, sending him sprawling on the court for a while, adding to Los Angeles’ mounting woes as Washington took an early 19-8 lead. The good news for Washington was that Davis could keep playing. As the quarter came to a close, Davis continued to overwhelm the Wizards, who lacked the size to handle him. The Lakers held a 39-29 lead at the end of the game, and he had already attempted and hit 11 free throws.

  Sports Read today’s Los Angeles sports news here. Updates on the Los Angeles Dodgers, Lakers, Angels, Kings, Galaxy, USC Trojans, UCLA Bruins, and more are here. Los Angeles took a seven-point lead into halftime and extended it to seventy-six points by launching a 9-2 run to begin the third quarter. The Los Angeles Lakers were 5-1 on a six-game road trip, and D’Angelo Russell had 18 points.

  In the fourth, Washington was within two points and was using their zone defense effectively until James dunks after circling Jared Butler to increase the lead to 109-105. That set in motion a 12-0 streak.

  With the game apparently in hand, the Lakers benched James and Davis. However, the Wizards responded with an eight-point run, bringing the score to 125-120. James and Davis returned to the game after the Lakers turned the ball over with 17.4 seconds left.

  In the end, the Lakers prevailed because Davis defended Butler’s 3-point shot.

  In the second quarter, James was in the midst of a driving spin move when he elbowed Deni Avdija, resulting in a flagrant foul.