Wizards at Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers will try to avoid stretching their losing streak to nine games — their longest in 21 years — when they host the Washington Wizards on Tuesday. The Lakers lost their final 10 games of the 1993-94 season, which remains their longest losing streak since moving to Los Angeles in 1960. Beating the Wizards will be a tall test, as they entered the week in second place in the Eastern Conference standings after narrowly avoiding a third straight loss Sunday at the Denver Nuggets.
Lakers leading scorer Kobe Bryant will have surgery on his torn right rotator cuff Wednesday morning and his prognosis for the remainder of the season will be determined afterward. The second-leading scorer for Los Angeles, free-shooting wing Nick Young, put himself in an unfavorable position with coach Byron Scott during Sunday’s loss to the visiting Houston Rockets because he didn’t like Young's body language and played him just nine minutes, and Young then suffered a moderate ankle injury during Monday’s practice. Washington’s starting backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal shouldn’t have any problem lighting up the patchwork lineup of the Lakers.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, CSN Mid-Atlantic (Washington), TWC SportsNet (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (30-15): Washington forward Paul Pierce likely slept well on the plane ride from Denver to his native Los Angeles. Not just because he was returning home for one of the few times this season, but because Nuggets guard Ty Lawson didn’t take advantage of his errant in-bounds pass in the final seconds of overtime Sunday night, when Lawson stole the pass but then missed a wide-open 13-footer at the buzzer. Other than that, Pierce has been playing especially well lately, surpassing his 12.8 scoring average in the last three games, including back-to-back performances of 19, his best two-game stretch this month.
ABOUT THE LAKERS (12-33): Bryant and Young combined for 50 of the 95 points scored by the Lakers in their 16-point loss in Washington on Dec. 3. Los Angeles point guard Jeremy Lin, on the other hand, missed all 10 of his field-goal attempts and went scoreless in 21 minutes. Lin is one of the players who will need to step it up with Bryant sidelined and Young questionable, but it's doubtful if he has that capability.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Pierce is 30 points shy of tying Alex English (25,613) for 15th place on the all-time scoring list.
2. Washington is 8-0 on the road this season when holding its opponent under 100 points.
3. The Wizards have had eight different players score at least 20 points in a game this season and 10 have led the team in scoring.