Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 111-104 win over Los Angeles Lakers
Defending their home floor
With Thursday night featuring two of top-five defenses in the NBA, it was the Bucks who showed themselves to be the more stout unit on that side of the ball last night.
The Bucks were dialed in defensively from the jump as they proceeded to protect the basket with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez swatting away shot attempts from oncoming Lakers players. The stellar work didn’t stop there as the Bucks continued to dig in and made most of the Lakers’ offensive looks hard to come by, which was obviously helped by the Lakers being a little worn down on their road trip.
That started with looking to make life tough for Lakers superstar LeBron James as he finished with 21 points on 19 shots (3-for-7 from deep, 2-for-2 from the free throw line), 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five fouls, four turnovers and was a -14 in over 36 and a half minutes of run.
And it was Wesley Matthews that took on the task of defending the three-time NBA champion and he was tireless in his efforts to slow down the 35-year-old James.
But the Bucks collectively wreaked havoc in contesting shots at the rim and forced the Lakers to turn over the ball 18 times, which led to collecting a season-high 14 steals and post a 19.6 opponent turnover ratio, matching their season-high in that regard. With that said, the Bucks only managed to score 15 points off of the Lakers’ miscues.
All of this isn’t a shot to the Lakers’ defense, which we saw how imposing how they can be in spurts. But it was the Bucks that proved to be more consistent on that on that end of the floor and helped lay down the foundation to their 25th win of the season.
Next up for the Bucks will be a visit to Madison Square Garden where they’ll take on the New York Knicks on Saturday night for a 6.30 p.m. central time tip-off.