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The Wizards have lost two games in a row and are now heading on a five-game west coast road trip against the entire Pacific Division, which includes the defending champion Golden State Warriors on Tuesday.
But for now, they will kick things off against the Lakers when they play against Kobe Bryant for the last time in his NBA career on Easter Sunday night.
The two teams haven't met since December 2, 2015. On that night, Bryant played just his second game since announcing his retirement effective after this season. He has been inconsistent overall, but not against Washington when he scored 31 points and led L.A. to a 108-104 win.
With Washington 3.5 games behind the Detroit Pistons for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference, every game is literally a must-win. And even then, the Wizards still need "help" in the form of the Pistons and Bulls losing...
You may be tempted to advocate that the Wizards tank the rest of the season in hopes of increasing the odds of keeping their 2016 first round draft pick. Unfortunately, Jake did the math and the chances of the Wizards making the playoffs are still better than keeping the pick.
If this were a month ago, maybe we'd have a different opinion. But with just 10 games left to go and with many teams with records much worse than Washington, we're in too deep at this point.
When and where
Date: Sunday, March 27, 2016
Where: Staples Center in Los Angeles, California
Time: 9:30 p.m. ET
TV: CSN Mid-Atlantic (D.C. area), TWC SportsNet and TWC Deportes (L.A.), NBA TV Canada
Online: NBA League Pass in all markets outside of D.C. and L.A.
Radio: Bloomberg 99.1 FM (D.C.), 710 AM ESPN and 1330 AM ESPN Deportes (L.A.), SiriusXM Radio (Satellite), NBA League Pass (everywhere else)
Injury Report
For the Wizards, Alan Anderson has missed the last couple of games due to a groin injury. He's a game-time decision, but everyone else is available. As for the Lakers, Ryan Kelly has a wrist injury and is also a game-time decision.
Wiz Killer of the night who is a Laker: Lou Williams
Williams is a known-Wizards Killer/Pest over the years. He only scored 12 points against Washington last December, but he averaged 17 points on 45 percent shooting in the Lakers' last five games. Sure, that's not that much more than the 15.5 points per game he scores this season, but given his past track record against the good guys, Williams is poised to drop another 20 points on Sunday night.