It is glitz and glamor against the basement on Tuesday night in Hollywood, as the tanking Washington Wizards continue their West Coast swing with a trip to La La Land and a game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
L.A. has continued its up-and-down season under first-year head coach JJ Redick, but with the trade deadline looming, there’s a sense Los Angeles has one more move up its sleeve as it seeks another playoff trip.
Meanwhile, this year has gone exactly according to plan for the Wizards. Despite being the league’s worst team, the Wizards seem certain to secure the best NBA Draft lottery odds at the end of the year unless they experience an unexpected surge.
With an NBA League Pass special on the slate this Tuesday in Los Angeles, check out our Washington Wizards vs. Los Angeles Lakers predictions, including our NBA expert picks, with tip set for January 21 at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Matchup Washington Wizards vs Los Angeles Lakers Overview
Teams: Washington Wizards vs. Los Angeles Lakers
Date: Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Time: 10:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Crypto.com Arena
Win Probabilities
The prediction tip for the winner in the game between the Washington Wizards and the Los Angeles Lakers is the Los Angeles Lakers.
Projected Final Score
Our predicted final score for this NBA matchup is Los Angeles Lakers 114-95 Washington Wizards.
Expert Prediction: Who Wins?
A miserable season for the Washington Wizards is potentially in its toughest moment. Not only are the Wiz embarking on a six-game road trip, but they’re doing so against tough opposition and on the back of an eight-game losing streak that preceded it. Now, in the space of 10 days, the Wizards have to go on the road to face the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, and Dallas Mavericks.
The Wizards are eager to surpass the 40-loss mark before the All-Star break. This year is all about retooling for Washington and a little productive losing. Giving them a chance at presumptive first-round pick Cooper Flagg is a positive for the lowly Wizards.
Meanwhile, the Lakers have successfully rebounded from challenging circumstances. Since they made their first move, trading D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith, they have experienced a slight surge. Los Angeles is currently in the top six in the ultra-tight Western Conference and needs to ride this positive momentum to remain there.
Fortunately for the Lakers, welcoming the Wizards to town presents a perfect opportunity to maintain momentum as Lebron James and Anthony Davis continue to lead the Lake Show, anticipating a potential trade deadline shakeup.
Why the Washington Wizards Can Cover
When a team is as overmatched and uncompetitive as the Washington Wizards appear to be against the Los Angeles Lakers, the need to find marginal gains and uncover an edge is crucial.
Unsurprisingly, those sorts of marginal gains are few and far between for the Wizards, who have totaled just six wins all year. Luckily for the Wiz, however, there is an edge to be found in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
The minimum for a young, inexperienced team like the Wizards is to get out, run, and play with high effort. To their credit, they’ve done that this year with the fourth-highest pace in the league. Per 48 minutes, the Wiz average nearly 102 possessions, which is roughly four more than the Lakers. At 16.1, Washington’s a top 10 team in fast break points per game.
Unsurprisingly, for an older, veteran team like the Lakers, they don’t exactly like to get up and down the court at a high pace. Los Angeles allows 16.6 fast break points per game this year, which is 24th in the league. If the Wizards can get the Lakers in transition repeatedly, a path to victory opens up.
That path gets wider if the open nature of the game enables Jordan Poole to get hot. Poole was excellent in Golden State over the weekend, with 38 points on 48% shooting. Poole has topped his season average of 21.9 points per game in all six of Washington’s wins this year. If the Wiz, and by extension Poole, can turn the Lakers’ home floor into an open floor, it will get interesting.
Why the Los Angeles Lakers Can Cover
Some nights, even now, a decade into Anthony Davis’s career, he leaves you in awe and convinced he’s the most dominant player in the NBA. However, these nights are not consistent, which is why Davis has established himself as the premier No. 2 on a contender team and has often faced criticism for not being a true number one option. When those nights arise, however, he is unstoppable—and one of those nights might just be looming on Tuesday.
Washington completely lacks any option to put on Davis to try and slow down his combination of physicality and length inside. The Wizards are dead last in the NBA in adjusted defensive rating and, with a rail-thin rookie manning the inside in Alex Sarr, have been terrible at defending the paint.
Washington allows an average of 51.0 points per game in the paint, the fourth-worst mark in the league. That is a glaring weakness for the Wizards that the Lakers and, by extension, Anthony Davis will be able to exploit repeatedly.
In a game where Davis dominates and plays like the best player on the floor, little else matters. The Lakers have become increasingly reliant on three-point shooting in the 2024-25 season, but even if those shots aren’t falling on Tuesday, it won’t matter. Sometimes, Davis is the most dominant player in the NBA. That player will show up on Tuesday against a thin, undermanned Washington interior defense.
How to Make Washington Wizards vs. Los Angeles Lakers Picks
Ready to make picks on the Washington Wizards vs. Los Angeles Lakers matchup on Tuesday, January 21? Make sure to head over to Sportzino, where you can find every NBA game on the slate this weekend and so much more!
