On March 20, Beijing time, the Lakers challenged the Wizards back-to-back away, James refused to take a break, Vogel changed back to the five small lineups again, and Zhan Huang partnerEd Westbrook, Reeves, Munch and Stanley Johnson entered the starting lineup. The Wizards' main scorer, Kuzma, was freed from play due to injury.
As soon as the game came up, James quickly sent an aerial relay to Stanley Johnson, Westbrook made a basket in front of the court, Reeves forced the basket, James attacked the basket twice, and then broke through the basket to assist the empty cut of Westbrook, and the Lakers played a 10-3 start. However, the Wizards immediately used 2 three-pointers to return the color, and then James attacked the basket again, and Munch made a left-handed layup.
After the timeout, Westbrook countered with a dragon to win, assisted Stanley Johnson to a layup in the next leg, and with a three-point shot from Reeves' bottom corner, the Lakers extended their lead to double digits. After responding from Afdia's outside, James turned around and backhanded a layup in a low single, followed by an assist to Munch's quick-on dunk to stop the Wizards.
In the rotation stage, Anthony just came on the court to score 5 points, Gabriel turned over and hit the hook in front of the board, and the first quarter ended, and the Lakers took a 10-point lead 36-26.
Throughout the first quarter, the Lakers were all soldiers, and 7 of the 9-person rotation scored points, and all got at least 4 points! Westbrook sent 6 points, 3 boards and 2 assists on 3-of-3 in the quarter, James 6 points, 3 boards and 3 assists, Munch 6 points, and Anthony and Reeves each scored 5 points.