At Crypto.com Arena on Friday night, the Milwaukee Bucks were defeated 123-122 by the Los Angeles Lakers in a heartbreaking late-game match.
With 5.9 seconds left, a D’Angelo Russell floater gave his team the lead, and Spencer Dinwiddie stopped Damian Lillard’s step-back, game-winning shot.
“There was only four seconds left, so Doc (Rivers) drew the play up for me to get a catch and pretty much get downhill and attack,” Lillard said on the last play.
“I caught him, lined him up, crossed him over, reached my right hand, and he was beside me, descending as though attempting to go back up, so I took a step back. He simply played the ball really well.
“When they move in one direction, players usually kind of plant and try to recover, but when I watched the tape, his feet never stopped moving. He was walking in this direction, and his feet were coming up under me. Normally, I would have taken that shot a little bit faster, but he made a nice move because I felt like I had a little bit more space than I did.
The game was officially over when Dinwiddie’s block was verified by an official review of a Giannis Antetokounmpo shot just after the buzzer.
Regarding the Bucks’ last play with Lillard, Antetokounmpo remarked, “Oh, give the ball to the best closer in this game today.” “He intends to perform. You have to accept the result of that play, whatever it may be.
Los Angeles, who had 22 points from Anthony Davis and 18 from Austin Reaves, was somewhat compensated for LeBron James’s absence thanks to Russell’s 44 points. The Lakers now have a 34-30 record.
Antetokounmpo led the Bucks (41-23) with a triple-double of 34 points, 14 rebounds, and 12 assists. With 28 points and 12 assists, Lillard recorded his tenth double-double of the season. The Bucks’ starting lineup also included Malik Beasley (14) and Brook Lopez (11). Off the bench, Pat Connaughton scored 17 and Bobby Portis scored 14.
Game of the season for D’Angelo Russell propels Lakers ahead
Russell scored five points in the first quarter to help Los Angeles get off to a relatively quiet start. However, in the second quarter, he scored eleven of his team’s forty points to help Los Angeles seize the upper hand. Russell and Austin Reaves shot five points from beyond the arc together, and Jaxson Hayes and Cam Reddish penetrated the defence to attack the basket.
Upon reviewing the tape, Antetokounmpo stated, “It’s imperative to review our mistakes from the second quarter.” “It seemed like there were a few instances where our low man got into the paint late and managed to get to the free throw line and make some dunks, but when we were ahead early on, they took advantage of it.” We were probably losing by ten or fifteen points since we were playing so much in the grey area. That is the most that I can think of.
Taurean Prince, a role player for Los Angeles, took advantage of the Bucks in the third quarter, scoring eight points, including two three-pointers.
With 5:31 remaining in the game, Russell broke free to make his ninth three-pointer of the game in front of the Bucks bench, giving the Lakers a 108-103 advantage.
After that, the guard took his play to the hoop, earning a foul on Lillard to block a three-point shot that narrowed the Bucks’ advantage to 122-121.
The three-point play, which was a monster, was, in my opinion, their biggest play, according to Rivers.”
You know, you live with contested twos? He produced them. However, you would choose it above the other photos.
That’s fine with me. I’d still like to see it. They were probably shooting close to 60% in the first half, so I didn’t believe our defence played particularly well tonight. I believed that they should have been covered when they killed us on their rolls in the first half. We didn’t have the low man present tonight, unlike usual.Lakers head coach Darvin Ham kept the ball in the hands of the hot player after the Lakers forced a stop.
Russell forced a switch to draw Lillard after working on Beasley first.
With 5.9 seconds remaining, Russell took the Bucks guard down to 13 feet and made another one-handed basket to give his side a 123-122 lead.As it turned out, it won the match.
We simply had a lot of miscommunications, according to Lillard. “One of our coverages is when Brook is put in that kind of situation on the perimeter. We run someone at the ball, make them throw it out, and we rotate. I was on the ball when they called Brook up to get a switch to put Brook on the ball. They got the switch, Brook called the switch.
Since I was aware that time was running out, I moved to double when I spotted Brook on the wing by himself. Since I was approaching from the side, Brook backed out and eventually started to lose ground, resulting in a floater. It was merely a case of miscommunication at the last minute.Although Rivers admitted that he might have been able to keep Pat Beverley in the game in that particular situation, he preferred to have Lillard on the court for the last few offensive seconds in case the Lakers’ jumper went wide.
We had them in the pick-and-roll, so ‘D-Lo’ was going downhill.
Perhaps I should have made a better play with the ball, or at least partially trapped him,” Lopez remarked. “I didn’t want to forfeit a layup or anything similar to that. However, if a man is playing that kind of game, you should probably approach him and take the ball from him.In the fourth quarter, Russell scored 21 of his 44 points. In addition, he had six rebounds and nine assists.
Antetokounmpo remarked, “I think a player like you that you gotta get into him, be a little more physical.”
However, you have to be more rough with players like them since you know they’ll be more aggressive than normal. There will be plays from time to time where you may need to push them beyond of their comfort zone, deny them, get into them, or send them to the paint. Just make things a little bit harder.
We were able to do it occasionally, but not frequently enough.With 22 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, and three blocked shots, Anthony Davis had a typical good all-around performance. However, in LeBron James’ absence, other players had to step up offensively. Russell ultimately finished with the most points, but when it mattered most, Hayes, Reddish, and Prince (24 points on 7 of 13 shooting) hit crucial baskets.