LeBron James notched the 125th triple-double of his career, leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a 120-101 victory over the visiting Washington Wizards on Monday.
James finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists, becoming the oldest player in NBA history to record a triple-double at 41 years, 90 days, breaking his own record of 41 years, 79 days. It was his third triple-double of the season.
Austin Reaves, Jaxson Hayes and Luke Kennard each scored 19 points as the Lakers (49-26) extended their hot streak, winning 15 of their past 17 games.
Los Angeles played without Luka Doncic, the league’s leading scorer, who was suspended one game for technical foul accumulation.
Hayes made all eight of his shots from the floor, while Kennard hit 4 of 5 from 3-point range. The rest of the Lakers went 3 of 19 from deep.
Will Riley scored 20 points, Justin Champagnie added 18 and Tristan Vukcevic had 14 for Washington (17-58), which has lost 19 of its past 20 games.
The Lakers jumped to an 11-4 lead on James’ alley-oop dunk off a Reaves lob, but the Wizards cut into the deficit and led 26-25 at the end of the first quarter after Jamir Watkins’ dunk with 0.2 seconds remaining.
Washington went up 31-27 on a Jaden Hardy 3-pointer before Los Angeles opened the first of two 11-0 runs in the second quarter, putting the game largely out of reach.
The Wizards made just 7 of 24 shots in the quarter, including 1 of 10 from 3-point range. Meanwhile, the Lakers attacked the paint efficiently, with Hayes scoring nine points and grabbing five rebounds in the period, to take a 65-44 lead at halftime.
Los Angeles stretched the lead to 72-48, setting up a second consecutive blowout for Washington, which lost by 35 at Portland on Sunday.
The Wizards managed a 9-0 run to cut the margin to 81-71 after a Champagnie layup. The gap was 91-77 entering the fourth quarter.
A 13-1 Lakers run over 1:44 pushed the lead to 114-84, sealing the win.
