The Los Angeles Lakers played their penultimate preseason game on Sunday evening, hosting the Milwaukee Bucks at Crypto.com Arena.
It marked the debut of the Bucks’ new star duo of Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo, although the Lakers were missing some key players including LeBron James and Austin Reaves. As has become typical in these preseason games, most of the regulars only played a half or three quarters worth of action with young guys finishing it out and it was the Bucks who ultimately came out on top with a 108-97 win.
Taurean Prince continued to make his case to be a full-time starter as he got the scoring started with a 3-pointer. The Lakers’ defense looked good early, allowing them to get out in transition for some easy buckets to take a 14-6 lead.
Antetokounmpo started going down hill to get his team back in it, although Anthony Davis responded with a three-point play to continue what was an entertaining start. The refs weren’t calling much in the first quarter, allowing both teams to play physically.
The Bucks bench did a nice job bringing them back to end the first quarter, although the Lakers still took a 29-28 lead into the second.
L.A. got going from deep again to begin the second with Max Christie and Davis both connecting on triples, forcing a quick Bucks timeout. After a quiet start though, Lillard got going out of the timeout with a 3 of his own and then a couple of crafty layups to eventually give his team a 56-53 halftime lead.
Meanwhile, it was the big men in Davis and Antetokounmpo that led the way with 16 points apiece at the break. Davis also had seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks, and neither star played in the second half, neither did Taurean Prince, D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura for L.A.
Lillard playing into the third quarter, however, and continued to get easy buckets to stretch the Milwaukee lead to double digits against the Laker backups.
Cam Reddish got some minutes for the first time in a few games after recovering from a minor ankle issue and looked good in the third quarter with eight points, including a triple to beat the buzzer and cut L.A.’s deficit to 86-79 going into the fourth.
Jaxson Hayes had a couple of highlight dunks for the Lakers to keep them in it, although he and the rest of the parent team were subbed out with G Leaguers and two-way players finishing out the loss.
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