Milwaukee Bucks: 3 lessons from loss to Los Angeles Lakers
By Adam McGee
As the Milwaukee Bucks fell to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, there were valuable lessons to be learned for the East’s No. 1 team.
It’s one of sports’ oldest adages that you can often learn more in defeat than you can in victory, and as the Milwaukee Bucks fell to just their 10th loss of the season on Friday in Los Angeles, there were certainly lessons for Mike Budenholzer’s team to take forward.
Not only was this game valuable as a clash against one of the only opponents who can legitimately claim to have been close to the Bucks’ level to this point in the season, but also as it could prove to be a Finals matchup if the East’s best team and the West’s best team, by record, end up playing out a series with the Larry O’Brien trophy on the line.
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If that does prove to be the case, both the Bucks and Lakers will enter into a series with a regular season victory over the other under their belt.
On that front, the Bucks can certainly take encouragement from the fact that Giannis Antetokounmpo was able to get his fair share of points in spite of the attention the Lakers paid him. Similarly, although there were moments and spells of weakness, the Bucks’ defense remained close to its usual high levels too.
Of course, with Milwaukee falling to a loss it was far from all positive. If the Bucks want to be best prepared for future meetings with the Lakers, or even matchups with other teams with similar personnel at their disposal, it will be worth their while to take a closer look at some of the key elements from this loss.
Some of the issues can be described as known issues that may just need reinforcement, while others reflect some of the evolving considerations the Bucks will have to keep in mind in terms of their lineups and rotations.
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at three lessons the Bucks can take from Friday’s defeat against the Lakers.