Big Three pace ninth straight victory
LOS ANGELES – The Milwaukee Bucks won their ninth straight game, tying their season-best streak, with a 115-106 over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena. The Lakers had only nine players available after several trades while the Bucks had a dozen after their acquisition of Jae Crowder earlier in the afternoon.
“They played well,” Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said. “It’s the NBA. Those guys are competitive. (Lakers head coach) Darvin (Ham) does a great job with them. (Anthony) Davis and (Dennis) Schröder had a little twoman game going and Austin Reaves was great for them off the bench. They’re not going to give you anything. They make you work for it. They’re competitive. So, they pushed us for sure.”
Big Three lead win over Lakers
It wasn’t the prettiest game after two days off in sunny California, but Milwaukee’s star trio of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday combined for 78 points and 16 assists in helping the Bucks outlast a game Lakers squad.
There were only three lead changes in the game, and the Bucks trailed for most of it – including being down 11 at point in the first half – but the Big Three put their stamp on the game in the third quarter by combining for 33 points and setting the Bucks back on a path to victory.
“I think we were just aggressive coming out of the half," Holiday said. "‘Bud’ kind of got on us about competing. Even though all the craziness today, that doesn’t give you an excuse not to compete. So, we just came out aggressive. I think defensively it kind of started, we got some stops, got out in transition and then the energy just flows from there and we’re knocking down shots.”
Los Angeles hung around in the fourth quarter – Milwaukee never led by double digits – but whenever the Lakers trimmed the lead back to a possession or two, Antetokounmpo, Middleton or Holiday were there to create a basket.
Antetokounmpo finished with a game-high 38 points on 14-of-23 shooting, and went 9 for 13 the free throw line. Middleton scored 22 on 10-of-18 shooting off the bench in 25 minutes, his most action since Dec. 13. Holiday had 18 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds.
The Lakers were paced by Schröder, who had 25 points and 12 assists. Austin Reaves (18) and Lonnie walker IV (15) provided a punch off the bench.
Davis was the lone star available for the Lakers, and Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez made it tough on him all night. Davis scored 23 points on 9 of 22 shooting and he battled foul trouble as well. Davis did pull down a game-high 16 rebounds.
“Obviously LeBron didn’t play but they had great players out there," Antetokounmpo said. "Obviously ‘AD’ is one of the best players out there. They played hard. They competed. They were in position to play hard.
"Sometimes when the best player is on the team does not play, people step up, they play harder, play together, they move the ball better, they play for one another. At the end of the day we’ve got to keep doing a better job just focusing on ourselves. It doesn’t matter who plays. We have to focus on ourselves as much as possible. We’ve got to do a better job competing.
"I think in the first half we wasn’t competing. They had so many second chance, so many times they drove the ball and nobody helped. That’s not who we are. We defend together. We move the ball offensively together, anybody that’s open is going to get the open shot but defensively we’ve got to do it together. In the first half we didn’t do that, the second half was able to go back, lock in, regroup as a team and came out and I think me and Jrue set the tone and we played harder.”
Bobby Portis update after MCL sprain
On one court Joe Ingles was getting in some extra individual work in with a couple of Bucks assistant coaches and on another, Bobby Portis was doing a higher intensity session with staff. The team had concluded its practice on Wednesday, but it was a good sign that Portis appeared to be moving well just over two weeks after spraining his right medial collateral ligament (MCL) on Jan. 23.
“Bobby’s doing very well,” Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said after the practice. “I think he’s really crushing it to be honest with you. There’s no new update, but he’s making progress and I would say even maybe slightly ahead of schedule. So very positive, very optimistic for him, we’ll see how the next week or so goes.”
The Bucks play Friday night in Los Angeles and are off until Feb. 14 when they play Boston at Fiserv Forum. They head to Chicago to play the Bulls on Feb. 16 and then the all-star break begins.
Could Portis possibly return for one of those games, or does a comeback on Feb. 24 vs. Miami make more sense?
“We’ll just see how the next week goes,” Budenholzer said. “There’s no update, no timeline as we speak today but
Whom do the Bucks play next?
The Bucks pull double-duty at Crypto.com Arena and play the Clippers on Friday night. Los Angeles was just in Milwaukee and the Bucks rallied back from 21 points down to win 106-105 on Feb. 2. The Clippers are led by stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, with guard Norman Powell providing scoring punch off the bench.