NBA Analyst Calls Out Lakers for Their Lackluster Defense in Loss to Bucks Despite Luka Doncic’s 45-Point Outing

The Los Angeles Lakers lost their third straight game last night, falling 126-106 on the road to the Milwaukee Bucks. Luka Doncic was fantastic offensively in putting up 45 points, the most he’s had in his young Lakers career, but it wasn’t nearly enough to take down Giannis Antetokounmpo and company.

Part of what ails the Lakers is that they were again without LeBron James after the 22-year vet strained his groin against the Boston Celtics on Saturday, but ESPN analyst Tim Legler has another reason they lost: defense.

Legler called the Lakers out on Get Up this morning for reverting back to their bad old defensive habits in this loss. L.A. spent the early part of the year ranked toward the bottom of the league in defensive rating, but the late December trade for Dorian Finney-Smith and the January season debut of defensive stopper Jarred Vanderbilt drastically turned that around.

Last night, the defense that recently held seven straight opponents to 102 points or less was nowhere to be found. Four different Bucks scored at least 22 points, and as a team, they made nearly half of their threes while getting to the free-throw line 33 times.

“That was as soft a defensive game as you’re gonna see a team play in the NBA,” Legler said. “Milwaukee felt no resistance the entire night.”

Defense is going to be key if the Lakers hope to stay in the race for the Western Conference’s 2-seed, especially as they try to get some wins before LeBron’s return, which Lakers fans hope will be within the next week.

The Lakers need more than just Luka Doncic to win games

Other than his six turnovers, Luka was excellent in this game, and Austin Reaves bounced back from his self-described “incredibly bad” outing against the Nets on Monday to finish with 28 points on 10-17 shooting. This game was proof, though, that without a strong defensive effort, even a combined 73 points from these two won’t be enough.

JJ Redick has inserted himself into the Coach of the Year discourse not only for the way he has seamlessly integrated new pieces throughout the year but for how he’s gotten the entire roster to buy into a defensive mentality. That includes LeBron, who shed his recent reputation to become a force on that end when he was healthy.

The road doesn’t get any easier for the Lakers from here, as they face the fourth-toughest remaining strength of schedule in the league. They finish their road trip in Denver tonight against Nikola Jokic, the player in the league most equipped to tear apart a poor defensive effort.

If there’s any chance of repeating last month’s dominant win at Denver (in which they held the Nuggets to only 100 points), the Lakers are going to have to get back to playing the kind of defense that got them back in the race even long before Luka arrived.