After beating the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night, the Los Angeles Lakers were back in action against the Milwaukee Bucks in the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday.
The Lakers were looking to close their road trip on a high note after going 2-2 in their first four games and despite missing some key players. They were able to do exactly that, building a big lead early and cruising to a 119-95 victory to improve to 10-4.
Austin Reaves came out aggressive with five early points, and then Luka Doncic threw a lob to Deandre Ayton. From there, Doncic took over offensively with 10 straight points to give the Lakers a 17-8 lead.
The Bucks were ice cold early and the Lakers took advantage with Doncic then finding Jaxson Hayes for an alley-oop. Gary Trent Jr. eventually got going, but he was the only one for Milwaukee as L.A. led 30-18 at the end of the first quarter.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored the first eight points of the quarter for the Bucks, but Reaves and Ayton did a nice job of answering on the other end to keep the lead at double digits with Doncic on the bench.
Milwaukee again went ice cold midway through the second while L.A. continued to pour it on. Hayes had a thunderous dunk in transition and then Dalton Knecht got in on the action with an open triple.
It was still all Lakers to close the half as they were having a lot of fun out there. Reaves found Ayton for two more lobs while Doncic was making everything to take a 65-34 lead into the halftime locker room.
The Lakers needed to avoid a letdown to begin the third quarter but unfortunately the Bucks ripped off a quick 10-0 run, forcing JJ Redick to call a timeout.
AJ Green was hot from 3 and all of a sudden the Lakers’ lead was down to 16, being nearly cut in half in the first four minutes of the second half.
L.A. had a quick response with a 6-0 spurt led by Ayton and then a pair of 3s by Reaves, but Antetokounmpo was getting whatever he wanted inside and Milwaukee kept chipping away.
Doncic hit two massive triples and then a buzzer-beater to end the third, so the Lakers managed to take a 92-72 lead into the fourth despite a really poor quarter overall.
Similar to the start of the third quarter, the Lakers weren’t interested in stepping on their opponents throats as the Bucks began the fourth on a 9-2 run to force a timeout.
Reaves had a nice response out of the timeout with back-to-back 3-pointers, and then he hit a third one for good measure as the Lakers finally put the game on ice.
To put the cherry on top, Lakers rookie Adou Thiero had a thunderous dunk in garbage time for the first bucket of his NBA career.
As usual, it was Doncic and Reaves that led the way for the Lakers in the victory. Doncic had a game-high 41 points with nine rebounds and six assists while Reaves had 25 points, six rebounds and eight assists.
What’s next for the Lakers…
The Lakers’ first long road trip of the season has come to an end and now they will return home to host the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night before getting four days off.
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