Lakers Stage Remarkable Comeback in Double-Overtime Victory over Bucks without LeBron James

With just 11 regular season games remaining, the Los Angeles Lakers began a six-game road trip against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night. If they want to move up the standings, it’s now or never.

Unfortunately, LeBron James missed a game against the Bucks for the second straight week due to a bothersome ankle issue. Without James, the Lakers prevailed over the Bucks in Los Angeles, and they did so once more in Milwaukee, pulling off an amazing comeback to win 128-124 in double overtime.

With seven early baskets, Giannis Antetokounmpo got his team going, and the Bucks quickly led 12-2 while the Lakers battled to score goals.

The Lakers’ second basket after a timeout came from Rui Hachimura, but overall, they were unable to generate much offensive momentum as the Bucks widened their lead.

Eventually, Anthony Davis got things rolling for Los Angeles, scoring some much-needed baskets, including a huge putback slam to beat the buzzer. But after one quarter, the Lakers were still behind, 32–16.

The Lakers started the second quarter with five straight points from Taurean Prince, but Antetokounmpo answered with a three-point shot.

But while the Lakers kept reducing their large deficit, D’Angelo Russell also began to click. They cut the deficit to six points, but failed to close the half as Antetokounmpo controlled the paint and Damian Lillard made clutch free-throws to put the Bucks ahead 58-42 heading into the locker room at halftime.

The Lakers started to pull away in the third quarter thanks to three quick three-pointers from Russell. Reaves’ long-range jumper reduced the deficit to just seven points, but the Bucks responded with a crucial three-pointer from former Laker Malik Beasley.

After the Lakers once more had a subpar quarter, Milwaukee’s lead was restored to 88-74 thanks to a putback by Antetokounmpo that beat the buzzer.

The Lakers seemed to be running out of gas as the Bucks extended their lead to begin the fourth quarter. With triples from Russell and Reaves, they tried to add one more run. Reaves used some costly turnovers by Antetokounmpo to his advantage, making layups to reduce the lead to just five points.

Doc Rivers called a crucial timeout, and his team responded with five straight goals to regain the lead. However, the Lakers came back once more, fighting their way back from a 10-point deficit to level the game at 101 in the closing seconds.

The Lakers managed to hold on and send the game into overtime with the score tied at 101 despite numerous bad calls made by the officials.

Beasley opened the scoring in overtime with a corner triple, but the Lakers answered with consecutive triples from Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis to grab the lead. Beasley then added another triple to tie the score heading into the last minute.

With 13.6 seconds remaining, Lillard eventually answered with a corner three to put his side up two, but Hachimura gave the Lakers another lead with a great baseline layup. The Bucks had a chance to win it at the buzzer after two free throws by Russell, but Davis blocked Lillard’s shot, forcing extra overtime.

The game was deadlocked heading into the last 40 seconds of overtime because both teams were fatigued. At that time, Reaves scored another huge 3-pointer for Los Angeles, and Antetokounmpo missed two at the line.

At that point, the Bucks had to foul, and in order to tie the game and complete the amazing comeback, Russell and Davis each made two baskets.