LOS ANGELES — For as up-and-down as the Lakers’ season has been, there’s been one constant: their ability to take care of business against the NBA’s worst teams.

The Lakers entered Tuesday with an 11-1 record against teams with sub-.500 records — the second-best record in the conference in those scenarios behind the West-best Oklahoma City Thunder — exhibiting their ability to not overlook lesser opponents.

That was on display at Crypto.com Arena in their 111-88 win over the league-worst Washington Wizards, who dropped their 11th consecutive game to fall to 6-36 on the season.

“Our guys have had the right intent, motivation, spirit all that stuff to start games,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said pregame. “For us, no matter the opponent, it’s just about staying connected and kind of playing through adversity. There’s adversity in every game. We talked about it again as a group. We recognize how hard it is to win in this league at any given time.”

The Lakers (23-18) pulled off the near wire-to-wire behind dominant performances from their star players and Dorian Finney-Smith’s best offensive performance since joining the Lakers last month.

Anthony Davis finished with a game-high 29 points to go with 15 rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots in 32 minutes.

LeBron James recorded a 21 point-13 assist-10 rebound triple-double, his ninth of the season and 121st of his career, the second-most in league history.

Finney-Smith scored 16 points off of the bench, his most as a Laker, on 6-of-8 shooting, including knocking down four of his six shots from beyond the 3-point arc.

Austin Reaves added 16 points, but on 4-of-15 shooting, and eight assists.

The Lakers had 30 assists on their 43 made shots (47.8% shooting from the field).

After taking a 59-49 lead into halftime, the Lakers led by double digits for most of the second half, including by as many as 22 (110-88) late in the fourth.

With his team leading 107-88 with two minutes left, Redick subbed his main rotation players out, with the Lakers cruising to a victory from there.

The Wizards were led by second-year forward Bilal Coulibaly’s 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots. Jordan Poole and Corey Kispert both scored 15 points.

Lakers loosen minutes for Finney-Smith

Finney-Smith has been on a minutes restriction since the team acquired him from the Brooklyn Nets in late December, but that playing time limitation was increased ahead of Tuesday night’s game.

When asked about Finney-Smith’s comfort with the team and the team’s comfort with playing him more, Redick acknowledged before the game that Finney-Smith has been on a playing time restriction since he and Shake Milton joined the team in exchange for D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round draft picks in the Dec. 29 trade.

“It’s been hard because he’s been on a minutes restriction since we got him, so just having to kind of navigate that and try to save him, save those like four or five minutes for the end of the game, it’s been challenging,” Redick said. “We got word (on Tuesday) that we can up his minutes from 20 to 24. So that helps, that helps.”

Finney-Smith entered Tuesday averaging 23.4 minutes in the seven games he has played with the Lakers, down from the 29 minutes he averaged in the 20 games he played for the Nets before being traded.

Redick said Finney-Smith was on a minutes restriction because of an ankle ailment.

Finney-Smith sat out of four games in late November/early December because of a sprained left ankle.

He also missed time before being traded because of a left calf contusion — which Finney-Smith said was related.

Finney-Smith has only been able to practice once — on Jan. 10 — since joining the Lakers.

He wasn’t able to participate in their Dec. 30 practice as the physicals from the trade were being completed and missed the Jan. 16 practice because he was away from the team for personal reasons. His wife gave birth to a boy earlier in the month.

“Those practices when we were kind of in limbo and the uncertainty around when we’d be able to play again, we got a lot in,” Redick said of the schedule changes because of the wildfires. “And then of course he has to leave.

“But I think he’s in a good spot. We’re super comfortable with him and he’s super comfortable in his role. As the season progresses, we hope that that minute total gets back up to kind of what he was doing in Brooklyn. About 29, 30 minutes a game. That’s kind of what we’re all hoping for.”

SELF-ASSESSMENT

Tuesday was the Lakers’ 41st game, marking the midway point of the regular season and providing Redick the opportunity to reflect on how he’s grown since being hired as a first-time coach in late June.

“My assistants would have a better answer for you,” Redick said. “I was very comfortable on Day 1. I’m more comfortable now. The synthesis of information has always been very easy for me. Being able to communicate that has been natural — I’m getting better at that.

“In game, there are certain things that are out of your control. But the things that I can control, I think I’ve been pretty good with. But there’s obviously things that you look back at certain games, certain losses, and you’re like, ‘Hmm. Should’ve done that.’

Redick added: “The San Antonio game (on Dec. 13). Great example. With (Victor Wembanyama), we were in 1-5 coverage. It was one of the few games we’ve had where we’re switching across the board. And we talked about it as a staff pregame, looking back at that game, we should’ve been in coverage with Charles Bassey. He killed us on the offensive glass. Made a difference in the second half. So there’s always things you’re evaluating and wish you could do better.”