The longer the night went on for the Los Angeles Lakers against the Milwaukee Bucks, the more it was clear this one was in the bag. The Lakers wrapped up a comfortable 123-112 road win over the Bucks. Do not let that final score fool you. Los Angeles was firmly in the driver's seat before the final buzzer.
They managed to do that despite an off night from Luka Doncic as a scorer. Mind you, an off night from Doncic still features a 32-point effort. It was mainly the efficiency that was missing en route to that 32. Luka only shot 10-25 from the field, a step down from what his better games look like.
Some of those shots that did not find the bottom of the basket were a result of getting hacked and having that contact go unaccounted for by the crew. Other instances simply involved an outright miss. In either case, the Lakers still had Doncic's back.
Luka has an incredible amount of gravity on the offensive end even during his more human-like nights. That will always open up the floor for his teammates. In the matchup against the Bucks, the role players around Doncic did their part to take advantage of that.
Lakers' supporting cast gave Luka Doncic the support he needed
Milwaukee is not a good basketball team. Doncic should not feel the need to force a 50-ball or otherwise to beat a squad of this caliber. At no point was that type of effort necessary.
Sandro Mamukelashvili was cooking in the first half to support Doncic. Mamu had 15 in the first half, one of three Lakers in double digits alongside Luka and Austin Reaves. The stretch big finished the night with 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.
Between Walker Kessler, Matisse Thybulle, Ziaire Williams, and Collin Sexton, the Lakers got another 37 points to support Doncic. It could have been even more had Sexton not exited the game early. Reaves also had 18 before prematurely checking out of this one due to a limp.
The point is the Lakers had a solid team effort around Doncic against the Bucks. There should have never been a doubt they could take care of this game. For the most part, even with a slow start in the first quarter, that was indeed the case.
Doncic will give the Lakers plenty of MVP-level performances over the span of an 82-game season. This one was more akin to the first game of the year against the Los Angeles Clippers when the franchise superstar showed some slippage. Luka had his shortcomings here too, and Los Angeles reassured him that it would all be okay.
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