When you get to the last game of a six game road trip, there are all sorts of ways to view the game. Some might land on "just win, style points don't count," especially given the Lakers were playing on the second night of a back-to-back and didn't get to Washington until 3 in the morning. Others might look at the opponent—the absolutely awful Washington Wizards—and believe the "how" matters. 

Your POV on this sort of thing will definitely color your reaction to LA's 125-120 win, one that looked like it might be a carbon copy of Tuesday's win over Toronto... until it wasn't. 

Where the Lakers used a huge third quarter to pull away from the Raptors and never gave them a chance to get back into it, the Lakers on Wednesday built a big lead, then allowed a 15-0 run that got Washington right back in. After another big push, Darvin Ham emptied the bench, only to have to re-insert his starters for the final 17 seconds because Washington pulled back to within five. 

That ain't good. 

Bottom line, though, the Lakers finish the trip 5-1, they've won 9 of 10. They are a top five team in the league since the All Star break and are now 11 games over .500. The standings don't show it, but that's where the Lakers are. The next tests are tougher, for sure. Cleveland and Minnesota this weekend in the final back to back of the season. The Lakers will need to run the table (or very close) to have a chance to move up to 8th in the West where they'd only have to win one game to make it into the main draw of the playoffs. 

They've finally got some continuity and predicability in terms of who is coming into the game and when. Where the minutes are coming from, and all that good stuff. LeBron talked a lot about that after the game. Will it be enough? 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: The Lakers win in Washington, finish the trip 5-1.

SEGMENT 2: One of the best in the West since the ASB?

SEGMENT 3: Vanderbilt to get evaluated, again, next week. 

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