Lakers improve to a franchise best 8–0 on the road with victory over the Bucks.
After coming off a bad 4th quarter loss on Monday night to the Golden State Warriors, the Lakers redeemed themselves by capitalizing in the 4th quarter in tonight’s victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. With tonight’s win, the Lakers improved their road record to a franchise best 8–0 on the season, Beating the Milwaukee Bucks 113 to 106.
Tonight’s MVP goes to the never aging Lebron James. Lebron James had a season high 34 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds in 38 minutes tonight. James shot excellent from the field tonight going 13 for 25 (52%) overall and 6 for 10 (60%) from the 3 point line. Lebron James had 12 of his 34 points in the 4th quarter.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was hot tonight shooting a scorching 7 for 10 (70%) from the 3 point arc, with 23 points overall in tonight’s victory. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is second behind Seth Curry (59%) in field goal percentage from 3, shooting 56% (29 of 51). Frank Vogel on KCP:
“He’s a big part of the early-season success that we’ve had so far.”
Anthony Davis had another subpar night shooting, going scoring 18 points on 8 for 18 shooting. Outside of his shooting funk Anthony Davis 6 assists, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks in 38 minutes. Anthony Davis spoke after tonight’s game about his shooting funk, explaining how he puts a lot of pressure on himself to be better overall. Anthony Davis on his performance:
“I think I suck right now.”
Although AD has been in a shooting funk, he still has had an enormous impact on the defensive end tonight. Tonight AD and the Lakers made it difficult for Giannis Antetokounmpo, forcing him to commit 9 total turnovers.
Tonight the Lakers played great defensively as a team, forcing the Bucks to shoot 32 percent from 3. The only struggle they had was stopping the Bucks from scoring in the paint, giving up 58 points.
The Lakers couldn’t miss tonight from the 3 point arc. As a team the Lakers shot 51% from the 3, going 19 for 37. The Lakers total field goal percentage was 46% on 41 of 88 shooting.
The Lakers second unit had 31 total points off the bench in tonight’s victory over Milwaukee. Last season’s 6th man of the year winner Montrezl Harrell had another stellar performance, scoring 12 points, and notching 5 rebounds in 26 minutes.
Even with tonight’s victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, Lakers head coach Frank Vogel emphasized how much the Lakers need to keep improving. Vogel talked about focusing a little too much on main key players from each team and not the rest of the opposing team players. Frank Vogel on tonight’s Lakers performance:
“We have to play better, we didn’t play our best basketball tonight.”
Tonight’s Lakers victory puts them back into first place position in the NBA and first place in the Western Conference with a record of 12–4.
The Lakers will travel Saturday to Chicago to face the 6–8 Bulls, who the Lakers beat in early January by 2 points. Saturday’s game will be the Lakers 2nd game of a 7 straight road games trip.
