On Friday night, the Los Angeles Lakers battled back against the Milwaukee Bucks, as they nearly pulled off a great comeback win.
The Los Angeles Lakers ended up having a very entertaining game on Friday night against the Milwaukee Bucks. Despite trailing by double figures at halftime and for most of the second half, the Lakers were able to mount a great comeback in the 4th quarter.
Injuries have certainly hurt the Lakers recently, and they have been doing their best to overcome them. On Friday, Lonzo Ball was out with a knee contusion, leaving the Lakers short-handed in their backcourt. Things became even worse for them, as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was ejected in the second quarter.
In his first game back from a broken hand, Josh Hart had to play 35 minutes as one of the only guards left for the Lakers. For most of the game, the Lakers were trailing against the Bucks, however, they were able to get a big boost from Ivica Zubac when it looked like the game was out of hand.
Zubac came in and provide the Lakers with a big spark. In 12 minutes, Zubac totaled 16 points and five rebounds. While all of the starters had a negative +/-, Zubac was able to lead the team in that category off the bench with a +15 +/-.
Due to the excellent play of Brook Lopez since the All-Star break, Zubac hasn’t received a ton of minutes off the bench. However, he certainly made the most of what looked like junk time minutes at one point on Friday night.
Even though the comeback resulted in the Lakers losing by two in overtime, it was still very encouraging to see the effort put forth by the Lakers. This season is all about building for the future, and showing effort like they did against the Bucks is great to see from this young squad.
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With seven games left in the season, the Lakers are trying to win as many games as possible. However, getting minutes for hungry young players like Zubac wouldn’t be a bad thing for the Lakers.