After a humiliating loss, the Lakers broke physics in a bounce back thrashing. Luka had a triple-double by halftime. LeBron defied time. And a 31-point win was the quiet part said out loud.
WASHINGTON — The righteous may fall seven times. But every time, they find a way to get up.
Two nights removed from a pummeling in Cleveland, a performance that left pride dented and questions swirling, the Los Angeles Lakers stormed the nation's capital with a fervor not seen since January 6th.
They authored a 142-111 masterpiece against the Washington Wizards, a performance so flawlessly furious that it has not been seen in D.C. since the British burned down the White House.
This was a bounce-back as blitzkrieg. Redemption as rout.
The march on Washington began with its general, Luka Dončić, leading his troops with cruel efficiency.
He did not warm up. He did not ease into the evening.
He seized it by the throat in the first 24 minutes, compiling a stat line of such absurd grandeur it seemed a video game glitch: 26 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds.
A first-half triple-double. His second such feat in a Laker uniform, a rarity so profound it exists in a realm beyond comparison.
"He's beyond special," LeBron James said.
Dončić finished with 37 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds.
He was a phantom, a puppeteer. He bent the Wizards' defense until it snapped, finding seams that existed only in his mind's eye.
"He just came out with the right mentality, the right mindset," coach JJ Redick said. "He just bent the defense."
And when the defense bent, the Lakers broke it.
The ball became a living thing, a hummingbird zipping from palm to palm.
They tallied 38 assists, a season high. They shot 61% from the field.
In a contagion of unselfishness, and not isolation heroics, Los Angeles was a contagion of unselfishness, a pathogen for which the Wizards had no antibody.
The primary beneficiary was Deandre Ayton, a man transformed from afterthought to apex predator.
He feasted on the buffet of Dončić's vision, finishing with 28 points on a scalding 12-of-14 shooting, adding 13 rebounds. He was gravity incarnate, rolling to the rim with a purpose that shook the floor.
James outlined the night's simplest, most effective strategy.
"Feed the beast," James said.
Ayton was fed. He devoured.
Then, there was the ageless spectacle. James, at 41, turned back the clock not with a gentle nudge but with a violent, hydraulic shove.
He threw down an alley-oop from Ayton with just his left hand, a feat of athletic amnesia.
He took a lob from Marcus Smart and reverse-hammered it.
He drove baseline and posterized a defender with cold-eyed fury. Each dunk was a defiance, a middle finger to chronology.
"The early rumors are that the league is going to try to get him in the dunk contest this year," Redick quipped. "There's some juice left in those legs, apparently."
The juice fueled a runaway train. A 77-48 halftime lead. A margin that ballooned to 38.
This was catharsis. This was cleansing.
The bench mob joined the fun, contributing 51 points. Even Bronny James, summoned by pleading chants, broke free for a breakaway dunk, a moment that fused present dominance with future promise, father watching son with a grin that spoke volumes.
"It was dope," Ayton said.
But the true highlight was the collective. The 64 points in the paint. The 21 steals leading to 26 fast-break points. This was the Lakers' identity, realized: defense igniting offense, unselfishness amplifying talent.
"Outside of the last three minutes of the third quarter… we played 45 minutes of really really good basketball," Redick said.
The Wizards, overmatched and on a back-to-back, were less an opponent and more a canvas. The Lakers painted their frustration, their resilience, their ambition across it in bold, unstoppable strokes.
So where does this lead?
To Madison Square Garden. To the bright lights and relentless scrutiny of New York.
The Lakers carry not just a 4-2 record on the Grammy road trip, but also a renewed blueprint.
"It feels good," Ayton said. "For us to bounce back… everybody come back and reconnect."
The Lakers reconnected with a vengeance. They reconnected with the terrifying, beautiful truth of their potential.
When this machine is humming, when the ball moves and the defense flies, this basketball team is a force of nature, leaving splintered rims and shattered morale in its wake.
The fall in Cleveland was forgotten, buried under an avalanche of points, passes, and pure, unadulterated dominance; in Washington, D.C., the Lakers got up.
Category: General Sports
