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LOS ANGELES – The Milwaukee Bucks suffered a heartbreaking last-second loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena, falling 123-122 in the final moments.
A D’Angelo Russell floater gave his team the lead with 5.9 seconds left, and Damian Lillard’s step-back and lead attempt was blocked by Spencer Dinwiddie.
“There were only four seconds left, so Doc (Rivers) set up the play so I could catch it and pretty much go down and attack,” Lillard said of the final play. “I caught him, lined him up, crossed him, got to my right hand and he was next to me and coming downhill like he was trying to recover and I stepped back. He just made a good ballplay.
“Usually guys, you know, they plant themselves when they’re going in one direction and try to recover, but his feet never stopped moving when I watched the replay. He was going that direction and his feet kept dragging up. “So “Generally, he shot that shot a little faster, but I felt like he had a little more space than me and he just made a good play.”
An official review of a Giannis Antetokounmpo shot just after the buzzer confirmed that Dinwiddie’s block did indeed end the game.
“Oh, give the ball to the best closer in this game today,” Antetokounmpo said of the Bucks’ final play with Lillard. “He’s going to make a play. Whatever the outcome of that play is, you have to live with it.”
Russell’s 44 points helped offset the absence of LeBron James for Los Angeles, who got 22 points from Anthony Davis and 18 from Austin Reaves. The Lakers improved to 34-30.
The Bucks (41-23) were led by Antetokounmpo’s triple-double of 34 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists. Lillard recorded his ninth double-double of the year with 28 points and 12 assists while Malik Beasley (14) and Brook Lopez (11) also reached double figures for the Bucks as starters. Pat Connaughton scored 17 and Bobby Portis 14 off the bench.
D’Angelo Russell’s best game of the season leads the Lakers
After a relatively quiet start to the game with five points in the first quarter, Russell scored 11 of his team’s 40 points in the second quarter to help Los Angeles take control of the game. Russell and Austin Reaves combined to go 5-of-6 from behind the three-point line, while Jaxson Hayes and Cam Reddish got behind the defense to attack the rim. Reddish made a layup while Hayes had a dunk and made 4 of 6 free throws.
“I have to watch the film and see what mistakes we made,” Antetokounmpo said of the second quarter. “I feel like there were a couple of times where our short man wasn’t in the paint early, couldn’t get in the paint, get to the free throw line, make some dunks and then when we got there early, they kicked us out. We were playing “So much in the gray area that it cost us, maybe, 10 or 15 points. That’s what I have in my head.”
In the third quarter, Taurean Prince was the Los Angeles player who took advantage of the Bucks by scoring eight points in the third quarter, including 2 three-pointers.
But Russell continued his strong shooting into the fourth, hitting two early 3-pointers to improve to 7 of 8 from behind the three-point line. He then scored his 30th and 31street points on the night with a tough play on Brook Lopez, becoming the first point guard to score 30 or more against the Bucks since Devin Booker did it for Phoenix on February 6.
SCOREBOARD:Lakers 123, Bucks 122
Russell then broke free to hit his eighth 3-pointer of the night in front of the Bucks bench to give the Lakers a 108-103 lead with 5:31 left.
The guard then took his game to the rim, committing a blocking foul on Lillard for a three-point play that cut the Bucks’ lead to 122-121.
“I thought the most important play for them was the three-point play, it was crushing,” Rivers said.
You live with two in dispute, you know? He made them. But you’d rather have that one than the other shots. I’ll live with that. I still want to see it. I think in the first half they shot almost 60%, so I don’t think we had a great defensive night tonight. I thought in the first half they killed us in their streaks and that should have been covered. Normally we have a short man there, but tonight we didn’t have one.”
After the Lakers forced a stop, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham kept the ball in the hot player’s hands.
First, Russell worked on Beasley before forcing a trade to draw Lillard. Russell then worked the Bucks’ guard to 13 feet and hit another one-handed shot to give his team a 123-122 lead with 5.9 seconds left.
It turned out to be the winner of the game.
“We had a lot of communication issues,” Lillard said. “I was on the ball, they called Brook to get a switch to put Brook on the ball, they got the switch, Brook called the switch, it’s one of our coverages, when Brook is in that type of situation on the perimeter. We run someone to the ball and we just double the ball, have them throw it and rotate it. I knew the clock was running out, so once I saw Brook alone on the wing, I went to double and it was coming from his side “So when I got close to turning, Brook backed up and started going downhill and ended up shooting a floater. In the end it was just a miscommunication at the wrong time.”
Rivers acknowledged that maybe he could have had Pat Beverley in the game in that case, but if the Lakers’ shot missed, Rivers wanted Lillard on the court for those final offensive seconds.
“‘D-Lo’ was going downhill, we had them in the pick-and-roll, maybe he should have made more plays with the ball, caught it a little bit,” Lopez said. “I didn’t want to give up a layup behind me or something like that. But, a guy having a game like that you should probably go up and get the ball out of his hands.”
Russell scored 21 of his 44 in the fourth quarter. He also added nine assists and six rebounds.
“I think for a player like you you have to get into it, be a little more physical,” Antetokounmpo said. “I feel like he was playing freely and was able to get to his boat. He was shooting jump shots. He obviously had a great game, he led his team until the end, he won the game, he made great passes, great shots and great decisions. He was amazing tonight. But for players like that you know they are going to be more aggressive than usual, you have to be more physical. Sometimes there will be plays that you might have to deny them, get involved in them, send them into the paint, just make it a little bit harder, get them out of their comfort zone. “Sometimes we could do it, but we didn’t do it enough.”
Anthony Davis had a typically strong game with 22 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots, but without LeBron James other players had to step up on the offensive end. Russell did most of the scoring, but Hayes, Reddish and Prince (24 points on 7-of-13 shooting) made key scores when needed.
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s passing gives Bucks a late chance
Antetokounmpo set a career-high with his eighth triple-double of the season when he found Connaughton open in the corner for a 3-pointer that put the Bucks up 114-112 with 2:25 left.
Antetokounmpo continued to distribute in crunch time after that, setting up a Lillard four-point play and then finding Connaughton cutting the baseline for a layup that gave Milwaukee a 120-115 lead.
The Bucks MVP candidate recorded the best triple-double of his career with 61street game this season. He recorded seven triple-doubles in 61 games in 2020-21.
He is currently fourth in the league in triple-doubles this season behind Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis (22), Denver’s Nikola Jokić (20) and Dallas’ Luka Dončić (15).
It’s 43third triple-double in Antetokounmpo’s career, tying him with Fat Lever for 12th all-time. Antetokounmpo ranks seventh among active players.
You realized?
With 10 minutes and 23 seconds left in the third quarter, Lakers forward Rui Hachimura decided to challenge Lopez at the rim, and Lopez denied the 6-foot-8, 230-pounder’s powerful dunk attempt. which led to a great play. He watched Hachimura’s incredulous reaction and a simple nod from Lopez.
Davis then said what you can do, I can do better, as he first blocked a Lopez layup attempt and then recovered to block an Antetokounmpo dunk attempt five seconds apart a few minutes later to force a time clock violation. Bucks shot.
Not to be left out, Antetokounmpo swallowed another Hachimura dunk attempt late in the fourth quarter on an impressive block that led to a Connaughton free throw.
five numbers
5-4 The Lakers’ record without LeBron James this season.
14:07 Antetokounmpo played consecutive minutes to start the second half. He was on the court for the entire third quarter and the first 2:07 of the quarter. Despite the long period, the Bucks were unable to overcome the hurdle of the Lakers leading 97-94 when it came out early in the fourth quarter.
25-4 The Bucks record when Lillard scores at least 25 points. He had 28 on 10-of-23 shooting.
40 Points scored by the Lakers in the second quarter, which gave them a 67-63 lead at halftime. That followed a 40-point first quarter by Golden State on Wednesday. Before these last two games, Milwaukee had not allowed a 40-point quarter since Miami reached that number in a Feb. 13 win over the Bucks at Fiserv Forum.
The only other teams besides Miami to score 40 points in a single quarter were Dallas (44, first quarter) and Utah (40, fourth quarter).
2,564 Career made 3-pointers for Lillard, the fourth-most all-time 3-pointers in NBA history. His first three-pointer of the night against the Lakers moved him out of a tie with Indiana’s Reggie Miller. Only Stephen Curry (3,680), Ray Allen (2,973) and James Harden (2,910) are ahead of Lillard.
Further:How Giannis Antetokounmpo learned to improve himself to play the best basketball of his career
LeBron James ruled out against Bucks
The NBA’s all-time leading scorer was downgraded to the Los Angeles Lakers with a sprained left ankle. James has been monitoring his ankle since the All-Star break and had played in the last seven games.
When does Khris Middleton play?
Khris Middleton was ruled out early for the Lakers game, meaning he will miss his 13th straight game since severely spraining his left ankle against Phoenix on Feb. 6.
He spoke for the first time since that injury on Monday and said they’re “just trying to get the swelling out.”
“At first I had a lot of swelling when I sprained or rolled my ankle,” Middleton said. “Much of it has disappeared. “I’m just waiting for this last little bit to pass, so I can move freely without pain or anything like that.”
Further:Milwaukee Bucks star Khris Middleton talks about ankle injury: ‘I need to play’
Friday’s missed game is significant as it means Middleton will miss 62 games and miss out on a $1.5 million bonus. Middleton was on track to meet that threshold after playing in 43 of the Bucks’ first 51 games.
The fact that Middleton didn’t earn the bonus didn’t affect whether the Bucks made it through the second “fiscal apron,” since they already made it through it anyway. It will only affect the Bucks’ luxury tax payment for 2023-24 and their salary cap hit for 2024-25.
