Lakers player grades: Short-handed Lakers lose big to the Bucks
The Los Angeles Lakers looked to have an opportunity to win their fourth straight game when the Milwaukee Bucks headed to Crypto.com Arena. However, hours before the opening tip, the team apparently decided that good health was more important than a win on this night.
Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, Dorian Finney-Smith and Jarred Vanderbilt were ruled out, and they joined LeBron James and Rui Hachimura on the bench. As a result, the Lakers were severely short-handed against a Bucks team that is fighting to stay in fifth place in the Eastern Conference.
They simply couldn't even compete with a Bucks team that was mostly whole other than star guard Damian Lillard. They were down by 15 at the end of the first quarter and by 11 at halftime, and that deficit grew to as many as 35 points. In the end, they fell by a final score of 118-89.
Los Angeles shot just 41.5% from the field, and it committed 22 turnovers, several of which were unforced and sloppy. Interestingly, it had 26 assists on 34 made field goals, which is an impressive ratio, but it simply didn't have enough healthy bodies to have a real shot at victory.
This loss ended a nine-game home winning streak for the Lakers. They still, however, have the third-fewest losses at home of any NBA team so far this season.
With a 43-26 record, the Purple and Gold have slipped back into fourth place in the Western Conference and trail the second-place Houston Rockets by 1.5 games.
Markieff Morris: C
Morris looked to be aggressive offensively in a rare appearance for him. The book on him seems to be to chase him off the 3-point line, so he looked to drive off the dribble and set up mid-range shots. Unfortunately, his shot didn't fall that often.
He went 3-of-11 from the field and missed all but one of his six 3-point attempts. He finished with nine points, four rebounds, two assists and one block in 28 minutes.
Jaxson Hayes: B/B-plus
Hayes played fairly hard, and he had a couple of thunderous dunks. In all, he scored nine points on 4-of-5 shooting, and he even tried a 3-pointer, which he missed. He also added five rebounds and three assists in 16 minutes.
Gabe Vincent: D-plus/C-minus
Vincent struggled with his shot all evening long. Without James, Doncic or Reaves to play off of, he got very few clean looks, and that was a factor in him going 3-of-12 overall and 2-of-7 from 3-point range. He ended up with nine points and chipped in four assists and two rebounds in 25 minutes.
Jordan Goodwin: B-plus
Goodwin had some trouble with his ball-handling early, which resulted in him committing three turnovers. But other than that, he continued to show the promise that has been on display ever since he was called up from the G League. He scored eight points and hit two of his three attempts from downtown, and he also contributed eight rebounds, five assists, two blocks and one steal in 31 minutes.
Dalton Knecht: B-minus
This looked like a great opportunity for Knecht to have a huge game, just as he did last Friday when he exploded for 32 points with James, Doncic, Hachimura, Hayes, Finney-Smith and Vincent out of action. But he was awful with his shooting through three quarters on Thursday.
During that span, he missed all but one of his eight shot attempts, including both of his 3-point attempts. However, he started to get himself going in the fourth quarter.
In that final period, he went 4-of-6 overall and 3-of-4 from downtown, which allowed him to finish with 17 points. He also helped out with four rebounds, three assists and one steal in 31 minutes.
Alex Len: B-plus
Len hasn't played a ton since joining the Lakers from the buyout market last month, but this was the best game he's had since then. He scored 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting, which included a 3-pointer, and he grabbed nine rebounds in 17 minutes.
He likely won't earn himself more playing time with this performance, but it did prove he can contribute a little bit when needed.
Cam Reddish: D-plus
In just his second appearance in a game since late January, Reddish went 1-of-6 from the field and finished with two points, four rebounds and two steals.
Shake Milton: C-plus
In 23 minutes, Milton shot 2-of-6 overall and scored four points while contributing six rebounds and three assists and using up all six of his fouls.
Trey Jemison III: B
Jemison helped out in 16 minutes with four points on 2-of-3 shooting and five rebounds.
Bronny James: A
This may have been the biggest night of the younger James' basketball career so far. He has had some big nights in the G League, but he hasn't had a game in the NBA like the one he had on Thursday.
With the Lakers short on available players, he checked into the game with 5:28 left in the third quarter, and he hit a short shot in the lane moments later. Late in the first quarter, he threw a pinpoint outlet pass to a streaking Morris for a fast-break layup. Later on, he confidently stepped into a 3-pointer that he made, and it was all an omen of things to come.
The rookie guard ended up with 17 points on 7-of-10 overall shooting and 2-of-4 from 3-point land, five assists, three rebounds and one block in 30 minutes. This performance didn't prove that he's ready for NBA minutes, but it did prove that he could have some real NBA potential down the road.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers player grades: Short-handed Lakers lose big to the Bucks
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