Wizards at Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers jumped up into the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference while Pau Gasol was out of the lineup. The Lakers will try to stay hot while integrating both Gasol and Kobe Bryant back into the lineup when they host the Washington Wizards on Friday. Bryant has sat out the last two games to rest his sprained left ankle and recover from a bout with the flu, while Gasol has been out since Feb. 6 with a torn plantar fascia.
Los Angeles could not have picked a better opponent against whom to ease the two stars back than the Wizards, who own the worst road record in the Eastern Conference at 6-26. Washington has been much stronger in the second half of the season, however, and picked up a rare road win at Phoenix on Wednesday. The Lakers are coming off a loss at those same Suns on Monday but have won 11 of their last 15 and will be looking to grab a quick home win before taking off on another four-game road trip.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, CSMA (Washington), TWSN (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (24-43): Washington has been on the upswing since John Wall returned to the lineup on Jan. 12 and has won four of its last five overall. Wednesday’s triumph at Phoenix snapped a three-game road slide and came without center Emeka Okafor, who sat with an illness. Okafor averaged 17 points and 9.5 rebounds in his last two games and is listed as day-to-day. The Wizards may have lost another player in that win over the Suns when rookie Bradley Beal was forced to leave in the fourth quarter with a sprained ankle. The Florida product had missed six games earlier this month due to trouble with that same left ankle and could be shut down again.
ABOUT THE LAKERS (36-33): Bryant, Gasol, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard have not had much of a chance to mesh together due to various injuries among the four aging stars. But Los Angeles has surged since Gasol left the lineup, going 13-7 in 20 games, and is in a much more positive position than they were when he went down over a month ago. Gasol was coming off the bench when he was hurt but Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni suggested that with all four of his superstars healthy, a starting lineup that included all of them could work. Bryant, who suffered what was called a severe left ankle sprain on March 13 at Atlanta, played the first quarter of last Friday’s win at Indiana before sitting out the last two games. He and Gasol both went through practice on Thursday.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Lakers own a 1 1/2-game lead on the Utah Jazz for the No. 8 spot and are 1 1/2 games behind the seventh-place Houston Rockets.
2. Gasol has averaged 18.7 points and 9.3 rebounds in 18 career games against the Wizards.
3. Bryant scored 30 points in the first meeting, a 102-96 Los Angeles win at Washington on Dec. 14.