Three Things to Know: Lakers vs. Bucks 3-8-24

The Lakers (34-30) suffered a shocking loss on Wednesday, but return to action against another top opponent when the Bucks (41-22) visit on Friday. The game tips off at 7:00 p.m. on Spectrum SportsNet and ESPN.

Below are three things to know before the match.

LEBRON’S HEALTH
With just under four minutes remaining in Wednesday night’s loss to the Kings, LeBron James called a timeout to remove himself from the game. James left the field and instead of sitting on the bench, he went straight back to the locker room, visibly limping.

After the game, LeBron said he was dealing with soreness in his left ankle that began to affect him more in the 4th quarter – the same injury that kept him on the team’s injury report for most of the season.

“Everything will be fine,” LeBron said. “It’s just my ankle, what I had to deal with before and after the (All-Star) break. I’m just handling it the best I can. I played the whole 3rd (quarter) , I sat down for a bit for I started the 4th and when I came back to it, it didn’t matter, that’s exactly what I was facing.”

Heading into Friday’s game against Milwaukee, LeBron has the same “questionable” designation he’s had in all of the team’s previous games as of late. Considering he’s mostly played with this status and hasn’t been downgraded to questionable status (yet), that should be encouraging when wondering if he’ll be able to play tonight.

The final decision, however, will likely come closer to game time after LeBron completes his pregame routine.

A FIGHTING DEFENSE
After the Lakers’ win over the Thunder on Monday, coach Darvin Ham said the team played its best defensive half in some time and overall credited his team’s defense for the win. He stressed that it was a performance the team could build on. Two nights later, the Lakers mounted a similar defensive effort to start the Kings game, but Sacramento’s combination of speed, skill, offensive movement and shooting proved too much of a problem and the Lakers’ defense failed. never recovered.

Unfortunately, the defensive challenges the team has faced over the past three quarters against Sacramento have been more the norm of late than the exception. For the season, the Lakers are 17th in the NBA with a 115.3 rating, but that number is buoyed by the top-10 effort they showed earlier in the year and their season-long tournament title.

Since then, however, they have not performed at the same level and this is reflected in their downward trend. Below is their defensive rating over their last 20 games:

Earlier in the season, the Lakers were a solid defensive team that was a bottom-10 offensive team in the league. However, since the calendar turned to 2024, the opposite has been true as the team has gradually moved up the ranks offensively, but has seen the fallout from its ground defense.

If the Lakers want to start moving up the standings and fortifying themselves for what they hope will be another playoff run, they need to reestablish the identity they had earlier in the season and start playing better defensively.

THE BUCKS OF DOC RIVERS
On January 24, the Bucks made headlines by firing head coach Adrian Griffin, even though the team was 30–13 in 43 games. Joe Prunty was named interim head coach and stepped in for a few games, but the organization chose Doc Rivers as the permanent replacement who would take the reins.

It didn’t start out well for the Rivers’ Bucks at first, they limped to the All-Star break with several losses, including a disappointing defeat at the hands of the extremely short-handed Memphis Grizzlies in the final game of the team before this bye week. Coming out of the break, however, the Bucks showed new life and moved up the standings.

The Bucks have won six straight games out of the break, with their only loss coming Wednesday against the Warriors to end their streak. Through those seven games, Milwaukee has the NBA’s 2nd-best defense (105.8), 10th-best offense (115.4), and 4th-best net rating (+9.8). They showed a better commitment to getting back defensively in transition, relied on their combination of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez to protect the paint and cleaned up their defensive boards.

Offensively, they still rely on the individual talents of Damian Lillard and Giannis to carry them, but Rivers implemented some of the favorite plays Lillard loved to run in Portland to help him get forward more, including setting screens higher on the floor to give him a runway to step into the deep jumps he can make or attack the slower-footed bigs who have to step out to try and contest that shot.

So for the Lakers, they face a Bucks team that is getting back into shape and will present considerable challenges on both sides of the ball. Few combinations on the court have the defensive range and rim protection skills to deal with both LeBron and AD, but the Bucks are one of them. And while Khris Middleton is out, Jae Crowder is filling in and he has more size and bulk to compete with Rui Hachimura.

With matchups tilted this way, the Lakers could end up relying more on their guards, especially on offense. Neither Lillard nor Malik Beasley are traditional stoppers on the perimeter, and D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves will have opportunities to attack them in pick-and-roll actions or even in isolation during transition or offensive first sets. If both can get going offensively, it would be good to support both LeBron and AD in production, but opening the floor for them to also attack their toughest matchups without the added attention that most teams would usually grant them.

On the other side of the court, the Lakers’ plans must account for Lillard’s shooting while isolating the paint against Giannis. Few teams have the ability to do both, but Anthony Davis is one of those players who has both the perimeter allowing him to get out higher to contest shots while also getting in the paint to help protect the rim . And while it will take a collective effort – especially from LeBron and Rui as Giannis and Lopez’s primary defenders on certain possessions – to help support AD, this is a game where all of Davis’ defensive ability will be needed to help slow down a very powerful Bucks offense.