In their first of five road games on Wednesday, the LA Lakers loss to the Milwaukee Bucks 102 – 109.
After getting a whopping by the Bulls in their final home game this week, many fans were looking forward to some “W”s on the road, especially against troubled Bucks, although not many were expecting the team to do a 180 in a matter of days. And the game started quite well for Frank Vogel’s guys. The Lakers came out strong from the start, closing the first quarter with a 2-point lead. The team then fell of quite a bit in the second quarter, allowing the Bucks not only a comeback, but a 11-point lead at half time.
Vogel must have laid the law during the break, because the Lakers came out of the locker room in the 3rd strong, erasing 9 of the 11 points surplus Milwaukee had on the half. But, as feared by many spectators, LA experienced another drop in the final quarter and the Bucks snatched the victory with the final score of 102 -109.
If there is a bright spot it must be 20-year-old Horton-Tucker. The forward had a double-double scored 25 points with 12 rebounds and 3 assists. And while Westbrook had 15 assists for the night, the guard only scored 19 points and 4 rebounds. Most of the disappointment comes from Anthony Davis, whose contribution foe the 37 minutes of game-time was limited to just 18 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists.
The Bucks, overall, didn’t do much better, but the inability to contain Giannis Antetokounmpo is what really did the Lakers in this game. The last season’s Finals MVP tore up the Lakers basket, scoring insane 47 points, with 9 assists and 3 rebounds. To put it in perspective, Middleton and Connaughton both scored just 16 points each and Bobby Portis netted 17. No one on the Bucks team managed to register a double digit on either rebounds or assists.
As usual, Vogel tried to deflect some of the blame for tonight’s result on the refs.
“Disappointed with some of the calls we got. Anthony Davis getting zero free throw attempts is a little mind-boggling. We’ll continue to communicate with the league on that,”
he was quoted after the game. And while no one is a fan of the league’s new foul rules, one can’t look past the 47 points Giannis scored at Fiserv Forum.
The Lakers are traveling to Boston next for a Friday showdown against the Celtics. Boston is experiencing a revival as of late and this road game will be another though one for the Lakers.
