Los Angeles Lakers get another LeBron 50-point explosion to beat Wizards

The Los Angeles Lakers were looking to stop yet another losing streak in a Friday night matchup against the Washington Wizards, who featured two former Lakers from the championship team in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Goodness, he can’t shoot!) and Kyle Kuzma (Goodness he can’t shoot free throws!).

Kyle Kuzma knows better than this. Not many things motivate LeBron James (Besides narratives and records), but you just can’t say things like this via The Athletic and expect him to ignore it!

"“It’s just great to be in a situation where I can just be myself and do what I do, and not dummy myself down,” Kuzma added. “It’s great because I’m not looking over my shoulder. Every time I’m making a mistake, I’m not looking at my head coach. I can focus on the game. Obviously, I don’t want to make mistakes. But that’s a part of it when you’re growing.”"

The Los Angeles Lakers fell behind the Washington Wizards at halftime, but it’s like LeBron read the press clippings and rolled to the second 50-point performance in a week leading the Lake Show to a 122-109 win over Washington.

Okay, when LeBron scores 50 points or more, his teams usually win games. This marks the 12th straight time that a LeBron-led team won a game when he surpassed that plateau.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

The staff of Lake Show Life is ready for a month-long debate about LeBron James!

LeBron James is angling for next year Lakers fans. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Somebody has to lead the team in statistical categories. That’s his motivation. Like this game here for instance.

They say superstars rarely have two bad games in a row and after LeBron’s putrid performance in a Houston loss after a disappearing act in San Antonio was motivating enough to prove a point. Like trying to build momentum and a winning streak is not enough.

With enough assists, he passes the 10,000 assist mark which gives him yet another NBA lifetime achievement award as the only player to score 30,000+ points, grab 10,000+ rebounds and 10,000+ assists. Okay, he didn’t get it.

He came out strong again on the OFFENSIVE end, dropping 17 points on 6-9 shooting with 5 assists in the first half. Sound familiar? However, despite LeBron’s exploits, the Lakers were still behind the Wizards. Sound familiar?

But the Wizards played awful defense in the second half and LeBron wore them out dropping 33 points after halftime basically beating this team by himself. James finished the game with 50 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. He shot much better from the field (18-25 shooting!) with six 3 point shots.

But with this performance, LeBron James now leads the NBA in scoring unofficially. See? Narratives…

Seems condescending, doesn’t it? Just keep reading to the third page for the story of the game.

Malik Monk is putting that work!

Its amazing what this dude can do when he gets minutes on the basketball court. He is so smooth in his play when now that he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder for the quick hook because of the defensive philosophies of Frank Vogel.

The only thing that kept Lik’ Lik’ out of the game was foul trouble, but when he was in the game, he looked so good.

Malik Monk finished with 21 points (8-12 shooting!), 3 rebounds and 4 assists.

Talen Horton-Tucker played well for the first time in quite a while!  

This is an important time for THT. He’s going to have to be more consistent and stop worrying about trade rumors because they will be coming in about a month on a daily basis.

He went back to doing what he does best…looking to drive the ball strong to the hole and finishing with authority.

Horton-Tucker finished with 15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. He used his strength to pound on a Wizards team led by Kristaps Porzingis and made them look very weak in the paint. Sure LeBron was that dude tonight with 50 points and Malik’s outside shooting was effective, but THT’s contributions can’t be overlooked.