In their second game of a four-game West Coast trip, the Milwaukee Bucks entered Crypto.com Arena hoping to win after suffering a crushing blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. In contrast to the Warriors game, the Bucks remained in the game for the full forty-eight minutes, trading leads with the Lakers. Due to ankle pain, Los Angeles was without its star player and future Hall of Famer, LeBron James. Six seconds remained, and Los Angeles’ point guard made a driving floater to give the Lakers the lead and the eventual 123-122 victory, with Milwaukee leading 122-121.
The Milwaukee Bucks will play the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night before playing the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday to wrap up their four-game road trip. The loss drops the Bucks to 42-23. The Bucks are now half a game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference and have dropped to the third seed. The Los Angeles Lakers are currently seventh in the Western Conference with a record of 35-30. The eighth-seeded Dallas Mavericks are one game behind the Lakers, who are one game ahead of the Golden State Warriors.
Wisconsin Bucks 123–122 Losing against the Lakers Recap: These two teams engaged in a seesaw battle in the opening minutes of their game, with six and a half minutes remaining in the first quarter and the score knotted at 14. Milwaukee had many leads of five points. Their largest advantage of the first quarter was six points, but D’Angelo Russell, the point guard for the Lakers, made a three-pointer to tie the game going into the second quarter. With eight points apiece, Brook Lopez and Malik Beasley concluded the first quarter, while Anthony Davis led the Lakers with ten points.
In the second quarter, there was back-and-forth play between these two squads. At one point, Los Angeles was ahead by eight points. The Milwaukee Bucks were aware that they needed to level the playing field before the game went out of control, as it did against the Warriors on Wednesday night. Milwaukee led 67-63 at the half, trailing by four points. In the second quarter, Damian Lillard and D’Angelo Russell each scored 11 points to lead their respective teams. With 18 points apiece, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Russell took the lead in the contest.
The Milwaukee Bucks had several chances to grab the lead in the third quarter, but they were unable to come up with a solution. The Lakers would mount a comeback and pull away from the Bucks on the scoreboard while the Bucks were trailing by one or two points several times in the third. Milwaukee was behind by nine points at one time. They put up a great deal of effort to keep this fierce contest fairly tight. D’Angelo Russell made a three-pointer with 24 seconds remaining in the third quarter to put the Bucks behind 91-90. With 12 minutes left in the game, Austin Reaves scored a layup to give LA a six-point advantage.
With two and a half minutes remaining in the game, Milwaukee would finally take the lead again. With a big three-pointer, Pat Connaughton gave the Bucks a 114–112 advantage. With fewer than two minutes remaining, Dame Lillard made a three-pointer and a free-throw attempt, giving the Bucks a 118-112 lead.
With one minute remaining in the game, D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura both made three-pointers to tie the score at 120. The Bucks led 122-121 after Giannis made a basket and Russell converted a free throw and a three-pointer after being fouled. Russell had also scored on a layup.D’Angelo Russell hit a tremendous floater with six seconds left to give the Lakers a one-point lead. Damian Lillard tried to extend the lead for the Bucks with a mid-range jumper, but Spencer Dinwiddie stopped him, and the Lakers defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 123-122.
Damian Lillard talked about the team’s early ideas about how the game’s final play might unfold after it was over. Though he usually attempts to get his shot off sooner in these close game scenarios, he gives Dinwiddie credit for a last-second blocked shot, and this time Dame thought he had time to get his whole shot off.Milwaukee Bucks player Giannis Antetokounmpo recorded 34 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists, a steal, and a block in his triple-double performance. With 12 assists and 28 points from 10 of 23 field goals, Damian Lillard had a great night. In addition to his 44 points, D’Angelo Russell led the Los Angeles Lakers with six rebounds, nine assists, and a block. In the victory, Anthony Davis ended with 28 points and 12 rebounds.
