Los Angeles Lakers: Tank is on, lose again without LeBron James

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope showed out from the 3-point line!

This game was never in doubt, but if Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had not brought his jumper last night it would have been really ugly throughout.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had his best shooting stretch of the season and maybe as a Laker overall scoring 21 second-quarter points to bring the Lakers within three points at halftime.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1108177499182137344

His 23 points were easily his best scoring half of the season and the Lakers needed every bit of it to stay in the game. Caldwell-Pope finished with a season-high 35 points on the strength of eight 3-point shots.

He shot a very efficient 12-of-20 from the field overall and competed on defense. His 35 points were the highest he scored in a Lakers uniform and second highest of his career. He played well enough that the Milwaukee Bucks actually shifted their defense to try to take the ball out of his hands and dare players like Rajon Rondo to shoot from distance. Obviously, the Bucks adjustment worked.

Caldwell-Pope did leave the game with about two minutes left with an apparent foot injury. Based on what I saw, a Bucks player stepped on KCP’s foot and he was favoring it numerous times before he finally sat.

Add KCP to the walking wounded. It did not look serious, but at this point in the season, they are likely to err on the side of caution.