Lakers stay perfect on the road with gritty Bucks win

LeBron James, guarded by Bucks' Jrue Holiday, scored a season-high 34 points as the Lakers won their eighth straight away game.
LeBron James, guarded by Bucks' Jrue Holiday, scored a season-high 34 points as the Lakers won their eighth straight away game. PHOTO: REUTERS

MILWAUKEE • The Los Angeles Lakers still have six straight road games to contend with but, if Thursday was a sign of how they intend to approach those matches, their opponents should start fearing the National Basketball Association (NBA) champions.

LeBron James scored a season-high 34 points as they won their eighth straight away game with a 113-106 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, the NBA's top-seeded team for the past two seasons.

They had a five-game winning streak snapped in their previous recent outing, a 115-113 loss to the Golden State Warriors, but the Lakers believe that was an aberration.

"Our motivation was not losing two in a row tonight. We were able to get that accomplished," said forward Anthony Davis, who finished with 18 points.

Fellow All-Star James made a key three-pointer and capped his night with an emphatic double clutch slam dunk as the Lakers improved to a NBA-leading 12-4 record after Thursday's gritty performance at the Fiserv Forum.

The Lakers drained 19-of-37 three-pointers, with 21 of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's 23 points coming from beyond the arc.

Going on a seven-game road trip might be a daunting task for some teams but not the Lakers, already the favourites to retain their title.

They have excelled away from their Staples Centre home, compiling a franchise-best 8-0 start, and have the Chicago Bulls - who are 12th in the East with a 6-8 record - next in their sights today.

"It is coming along. We are just playing for each other," said Caldwell-Pope.

Los Angeles bottled up Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Most Valuable Player for the past two years, who had a team-high 25 points but was forced into making a career-high nine turnovers.

The Bucks have been the runaway winners of the Eastern Conference the past two seasons but they are finding things tougher this term after dropping to third with a 9-6 record.

"We've got to keep working, keep playing good basketball for longer periods of time, make shots, defend better, rebound the ball better," Antetokounmpo said of his team, who dropped their second straight game for the first time this campaign. "Ultimately, we've got to get better."

Meanwhile, three more NBA games were pushed back on Thursday, bringing the number of postponed games since the start of the season late last month to 20.

The Memphis Grizzlies are continuing to struggle with player shortages due to Covid-19, the league confirmed in a statement.

With the team unable to field the minimum number of eight players as per the rules, the NBA said their next three games - against Portland Trail Blazers yesterday and tomorrow, and against the Sacramento Kings on Monday, had to be axed.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on January 23, 2021, with the headline Lakers stay perfect on the road with gritty Bucks win. Subscribe