Top Takeaways from LeBron James, Lakers' Loss vs. Wizards

It was a historic night for LeBron James. But it was another tough evening for his Los Angeles Lakers.

With 38 points Saturday, James moved into second place on the NBA's all-time scoring list, passing Karl Malone. He now has 36,947 career points and trails only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387). However, James' performance wasn't enough to power the Lakers to victory, as they fell 127-119 to the Washington Wizards.

Los Angeles dropped to 30-41 with its 13th loss in its past 17 games. The Lakers are in ninth place in the Western Conference, so they would be in the play-in tournament if the season ended today. It doesn't, though, and they have only 11 regular-season games remaining to build momentum.

Here are some key takeaways from Los Angeles' most recent loss.

Troubling 4th Quarter Overshadows LeBron's Night

Luis M. Alvarez/Associated Press

James was knocking down nearly every shot in the second quarter Saturday, which is also when he moved into second on the all-time scoring list. The Lakers once led by as many as 16 points. It seemed like it was going to be a rare great night for L.A. this season.

However, the Lakers failed to close out yet another game despite entering the fourth quarter with a six-point lead. The Wizards scored 34 points in the final period, taking the lead for good on a Kristaps Porzingis dunk with 2 minutes and 10 seconds to go.

James is on a tear, scoring at least 30 points in five of his past six games. Yet it isn't translating into wins for Los Angeles. The 37-year-old superstar can't power the team to victory by himself, and the squad isn't playing well enough to get wins on most nights.

So even though James now trails only Abdul-Jabbar in career points, it was overshadowed by yet another defeat.

"I can't separate the fact that we weren't able to get this win with me accomplishing that, because at the end of the day, all I care about is wins and losses," James said, per The Athletic's Bill Oram.

After scoring at least 31 points in each of the first three quarters, Los Angeles mustered only 20 in the fourth. It's been a trend for the Lakers to be unable to close out these tight games, even against lesser competition like the Wizards, who are in 11th in the Eastern Conference and outside of the play-in tournament field.

In two of Los Angeles' past three wins, James has scored at least 50 points. That's what it's taking these days for the Lakers to end up on top, and it's not reasonable to expect that from a player every night, even one of the all-time greats like James.

If Los Angeles keeps struggling like this, it may overshadow more great moments from these later stages of James' career.

Lakers Still Can't String Together Any Wins

Luis M. Alvarez/Associated Press

Good NBA teams are capable of going on winning streaks. They may not always be long, but contending squads can at least string together a few victories at a time.

They had a four-game winning streak from Dec. 31-Jan. 7. Since then, they are 9-22 and haven't won consecutive games at any time over that stretch.

At this point, Los Angeles knows it will likely be heading to the play-in tournament at the end of the regular season—that is unless it falls so far down the standings it misses out on that too. The Lakers are a half-game ahead of the 10th-place New Orleans Pelicans and three games in front of the San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers, the first two teams out.

There are some difficult games for Los Angeles down the stretch. Could it finally go on a winning streak despite the competition? It needs to start playing drastically better if so. And before it can string together a bunch of victories, it needs to first win just two in succession.

It nearly did Saturday. A day earlier, the Lakers outlasted the Toronto Raptors for a 128-123 overtime victory. They carried over the momentum from that in a strong start against the Wizards, but they couldn't keep it going for all four quarters.

"I thought we played long stretches of tonight's game the right way with confidence from last night's performance," Los Angeles head coach Frank Vogel said, per Oram. "But this group has to learn how to win. They have to learn how to win together."

Will they learn that in time to salvage the 2021-22 season? That's the big question facing the Lakers. And if the answer is no, then they may not have too much more basketball to play in this campaign.