It’s now or never for the Los Angeles Lakers if they want to climb up the standings as they kicked off a six-game road trip against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night with only 11 total regular season games left to play.
Unfortunately, LeBron James’ nagging ankle injury kept him out of a game against the Bucks for the second time in the last couple of weeks. The Lakers were able to beat the Bucks without James in L.A., and they did it again in Milwaukee with an incredible comeback to earn a 128-124 double-overtime victory.
Giannis Antetokounmpo got his team off to a hot start with seven early points while the Lakers struggled offensively, resulting in a 12-2 Bucks lead.
Rui Hachimura responded with the Lakers’ second bucket out of a timeout, but overall, they really continued to struggle offensively as the Bucks continued to build their lead.
Anthony Davis eventually got going with some much-needed buckets for L.A., including beating the buzzer with a monster putback dunk. The Lakers were still trailing 32-16 at the end of one quarter, however.
Taurean Prince had five quick points to begin the second as the Lakers started to get going offensively, although Antetokounmpo responded with a three-point play.
D’Angelo Russell also started to get going though as the Lakers continued to chip away at their big deficit. They got it all the way down to six, but then struggled to end the half while Antetokounmpo was dominant inside and Damian Lillard connected from deep to get the Bucks’ lead back up to 58-42 going into the halftime locker room.
Russell came out hot in the third quarter with a trio of triples as the Lakers began chipping away again. After Reaves connected from deep, the deficit was back to just seven although former Laker Malik Beasley hit a timely 3 for the Bucks.
The Lakers again then had another poor close to a quarter with Antetokounmpo finishing a putback to beat the buzzer, getting Milwaukee’s lead back to 88-74.
The Bucks continued to grow their lead to start the fourth as the Lakers appeared to be out of gas. They attempted to make one more run with Russell and Reaves both hitting triples. Antetokounmpo had a few costly turnovers and Reaves capitalized with layups, cutting the deficit to just five.
After a timely timeout by Doc Rivers though, his team scored five straight to take the momentum back. The Lakers again responded though, battling all the way back from down 10 to tie it at 101 in the final minute.
Despite some poor calls by the officials, the Lakers were able to hang on and force the game into overtime still tied at 101.
Beasley kicked off the scoring in overtime with a corner triple although the Lakers responded with back-to-back triples from Davis and Spencer Dinwiddie to take their first lead before Beasley hit another one to tie it going into the final minute.
Hachimura gave the Lakers another lead with a nice baseline layup, although Lillard eventually responded with a corner triple to put his team up two with 13.6 seconds to play. After a pair of Russell free throws, the Bucks had a chance to win it at the buzzer but Lillard was blocked by Davis to send it to double overtime.
Both teams had tired legs in the second overtime as the game remained tied going into the final 40 seconds. Reaves hit another massive 3-pointer from L.A. at that point and then Antetokounmpo missed two at the line.
The Bucks had to foul at that point, and Russell and Davis both made a pair each to put the game on ice and compete the incredible comeback.
What’s next for the Lakers
The Lakers’ road trip continues with the second game of a back-to-back on Wednesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that has struggled greatly without Ja Morant.
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