Bronny James Plays Whole 4th Quarter in Lakers' Blowout Win

WASHINGTON — Even on the road, Bronny James was quite a crowd favorite.

Fans in Washington chanted for LeBron James’ son early and often, and with the Los Angeles Lakers way ahead of the Wizards on Thursday night, the younger James played the entire fourth quarter of his team’s 134-96 victory.

Bronny James scored a career-high five points. He shot only 1 of 6 from the field, but he made a driving layup while being fouled and converted the free throw for a three-point play.

“He did a lot of really good things tonight. I thought he made a couple really nice passes,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “Defensively he was great. It’s building blocks for every young player, and I think tonight was a good, positive building block for him.”

James’ night also included an air ball from 3-point range, two rebounds, two assists and two fouls. He came up with a steal and made a nice long pass to Dalton Knecht for a dunk. Shortly after his lone field goal, James drove to the basket again and lobbed an alley-oop to Christian Koloko for a dunk.

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James closed out the scoring with a pair of free throws in the final seconds — and received an “MVP! MVP!” chant from the crowd.

“He’s had eyeballs on him his whole life. He’s used to it,” Redick said. “I remember not playing a lot my rookie year and second year. The Orlando fans would sometimes chant that in a blowout in the fourth quarter — ‘We want JJ’ — and it’s a weird feeling. There’s that audible sort of anticipation every time you shoot the ball. It’s a lot.

“He has handled everything with dignity, grace, class, all that stuff. He’ll continue to grow.”