Lakers revealed a harsh reality the Bucks have to swallow

The Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday night in what was the team’s fifth preseason game of the year. Los Angeles has just one more preseason game to play and the games will really start to count, starting on October 24 against the Denver Nuggets.

Preseason outcomes do not matter as it is the individual performances that fans are more concerned about. That is extremely evident from Sunday’s game as the Lakers may have lost but they are the team that should be coming away from this game feeling better.

It was the first time that Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard suited up on the court together and while the Bucks ended up getting the win, they may have also realized a harsh reality while taking on another title contender.

The Lakers proved to the Bucks they are on their level, if not above it.

Granted, this is one preseason game. Making holistic predictions about the course of the entire 2023-24 season off of one preseason game would be extremely silly. That being said, there were some preconceived notions about this Bucks team heading into this matchup that were somewhat proven incorrect.

This Lakers team hung with the Bucks in the first half. Giannis and Lillard played close to what they would have played in the first half and all the Lakers really had to offer was Anthony Davis. LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent and Jalen Hood-Schifino all didn’t play in this game. Four of those five players are very impactful rotation guys.

Granted, the Bucks didn’t have the entire rotation playing like it would in the preseason but it should mean something that Davis and a weak supporting cast not only kept up with Milwaukee but outplayed the Bucks at times.

The only time that the Bucks looked like some unstoppable contender that was going to run amok (which many people predicted they would after the Lillard trade) was when the Lakers G League team was in the game. Outside of that, Milwaukee looked like a very beatable team that the Lakers probably would have beaten with a full supporting cast in a game that actually counted.

Granted, the Bucks have nothing but time on their side as Lillard and Giannis become accustomed to playing each other. This is literally going to be the worst version of this Bucks pairing as they had no real time on the court together before this.

But that doesn’t change the fact that the Lakers fans probably left this game feeling better than Bucks fans did. At the very least, it was a harsh reality check for those Bucks fans that the 2023-24 season is not going to be the cakewalk that many expect.