LOS ANGELES — After tonight’s thrilling 128-124 double-overtime victory against the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers fans can feel the deja vu. Just a few weeks ago, they upset the Bucks in similar fashion without LeBron James, winning after upsetting the Bucks again without LeBron James, 123-122 at Crypto.com Arena on March 8.
This time, the win took place in Milwaukee to kick off a six-game Lakers’ road trip and increase their winning streak to four in a row. The team’s secondary stars shined bright even away from Los Angeles by filling the void left by James, who’s experiencing left ankle soreness.
In typical Lakers fashion, they started poorly on offense, only making one shot out of their first ten field goal attempts. In the first quarter, the Lakers were down as many as 19 points thanks largely to Giannis Antetokounmpo, who posted 17 points and 11 rebounds in the first half.
And again, just as many Lakers games have gone this season, they started to shoot better as the game progressed. Rui Hachiumura led the charge, reaching double digit points in the second quarter. He would go on to finish the game with 16 points and a career-high 14 rebounds.
D’Angelo Russell also started to find his groove behind the arc as well, starting off the second half by nailing three straight threes. Russell had a fantastic game on Tuesday just like on March 8, when he scored 44 points. This time, Russell finished with 29 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds.
Despite the building momentum, the Lakers still had their work cut out for them in the fourth quarter, entering the period down 14 points. Instead of collapsing without their leader in James, the Lakers answered the call, going on a 16-2 run with 9:52 left in the quarter to start erasing the Bucks’ lead.
By the end, Austin Reaves was leading the Lakers’ comeback , hitting clutch shot after clutch shot to tie the game and force it into overtime. His late momentum would carry him to his second career triple-double, finishing with 29 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists.
Damian Lillard scored a solid 27 points, but on further glance his stat line seemed empty after he shot only 9 for 29 from the field and 3 of 14 from three-point range—a measly 21.4% from distance. Plus, Davis blocked Lillard’s late three-point attempt that would’ve pushed the game to double overtime.
Davis’ fourth block of the game put the exclamation point on his incredible night, leading the Lakers with 34 points and a game-high 23 rebounds. The Bucks had the chance to tie it late in the second overtime, with Antetokounmpo missing a free throw late that sealed the Lakers’ victory.
Antetokounmpo’s one-for-six shooting from the charity stripe surely left a sour taste in Bucks fans’ mouths, even though he finished with a triple-double of 29 points, 21 rebounds and 11 assists.
The Lakers will look to continue their four-game winning streak, moving on to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.