Patchwork Lakers blown out by Bucks to wrap up brutal stretch of season

Down many bodies and playing their sixth game in eight days, the Lakers were blown out by the Milwaukee Bucks Thursday night.

The Lakers wrapped up their daunting week of a schedule on Thursday with a very shorthanded team falling to the Bucks, 118-89.

Playing their sixth game in eight days, the Lakers were without Christian Koloko, LeBron James, Maxi Kleber, Luka Doncic, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, Dorian Finney-Smith and Jarred Vanderbilt.

You can figure out how things went from there.

Bronny James Jr. ended the game with 17 points, five assists and three rebounds. Gabe Vincent had nine points to go with his two rebounds and four assists. Jaxson Hayes pitched in with nine points, five rebounds and three assists.

Markieff Morris scored nine points, grabbed four rebounds and dished two assists. Alex Len had his best game as a Laker with 10 points and nine rebounds. Jordan Goodwin scored eight points, dished five dimes and grabbed eight rebounds.

The bulk of Dalton Knecht’s scoring, unfortunately, came when it was too late to help, he ended with 17 points.

The short-handed Lakers looked as short-handed as they were to start the game. Milwaukee jumped ahead by 13 as LA struggled through rough offense and defensive breakdowns. Old friends Kyle Kuzma and Taurean Prince were both up to four points. Giannis Antetokounmpo looked great early with four points as well.

Jordan started giving LA’s defense a big boost by blocking a shot and stealing the ball. Gabe and Jaxson were shouldering much of the scoring for LA with four points each.

It was a tied game when Milwaukee scored nine straight, which included three consecutive 3-pointers. Whatever momentum the Lakers built had quickly disappeared as the Bucks extended their run.

Cam Reddish knocked down a jumper to stop some bleeding. Trey Jemison converted on a layup as well. Milwaukee’s scoring run had gone up to 20-5 and, at the end of the first, LA was down by 15.

Milwaukee continued to dominate offensively early in the second quarter, draining two more 3-pointers to add to their 50% shooting from behind the arc. Markieff Morris knocked down a much-needed 3-pointer for the Lakers. Jaxson was the other Laker to score, throwing down an empathic dunk.

Gabe drained another 3-pointer, his second of the half, and found Alex Len for a nice layup. Len then had the ball again, looked down to make sure he was behind the arc and drained a 3-pointer that excited the bench.

The Lakers found themselves on an 11-2 scoring run to cut the deficit to 11.

The Bucks then scored four straight points to stop some of their bleeding. Jordan drained a 3-pointer. Bronny knocked down a 3-pointer as well. He was having a nice game with eight points.

Bronny dished an impressive pass to Markieff for a layup. The Lakers had cut the deficit to single digits before Gary Trent Jr. knocked down his fourth 3-pointer of the night.

At halftime, the Bucks were up 11.

LA continued to play hard and chip away as much as they could to the Bucks’ lead well into the second half. Jordan scored five points for the Lakers.

Jaxson took the ball to the basket on a hook shot that banked off the glass. Dalton was having a rough night offensively but did score on a few free throws.

Len threw down a wild offensive putback dunk off a missed 3-pointer from Markieff. LA managed to keep hanging around. Bronny took the ball to the hoop for a layup that looked very Austin Reaves-esque.

The Lakers started struggling hard with their defense, allowing the Bucks to start extending their lead again. Trent Jr. was unconscious from behind the arc, draining two more. All the momentum was in Milwaukee’s favor.

At the end of the third, Trent Jr. finally missed a 3-pointer and the Bucks were still up big.

All of the fourth quarter was garbage minutes for both teams.

Key Takeaways:

At least we saw Bronny have himself a great game and Alex have productive minutes.

The Lakers’ next matchup is against the Chicago Bulls on Saturday at 7:30 PM PT.

You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.