Bucks at Lakers
The Milwaukee Bucks won 11 of their past 16 games and are starting to possess the look of a playoff team. Milwaukee should be able to keep its hot streak going when it attempts to reach the .500 mark in Friday's game against the lowly Los Angeles Lakers.
The Bucks are part of a five-team group battling for the final three playoff Eastern Conference playoff spots and have been racking up the wins despite a season-ending knee surgery to power forward Jabari Parker. All-Star small forward Giannis Antetokounmpo is leading the team's charge and he poured in a career-best 41 points when Milwaukee lost to Los Angeles on Feb. 10. The Lakers lost 11 of their past 12 games and coach Luke Walton was disappointed with the fourth-quarter effort in a 139-100 road loss to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday. "We need to figure out as a group - not individually, but as a group - how to handle adversity and how to react when things get tough," Walton told reporters. "We do a lot of blaming of other people, and we need to look at ourselves and control what we can control. Until we do, unfortunately, there's going to be a lot of frustrating nights like (Wednesday)."
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, NBATV, FSN Wisconsin (Milwaukee), Spectrum SportsNet (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE BUCKS (33-34): Milwaukee pulled out a gritty 97-96 win over the Clippers on Wednesday for its seventh win in the past eight games and got to hang out in Los Angeles waiting to play the Lakers. Coach Jason Kidd will learn a lot about the seriousness of his squad with this situation as the six-game road trip continues Saturday against the Golden State Warriors before finishing with stops in Portland and Sacramento. "We're trying to move up the ranks," rookie guard Malcolm Brogdon told reporters. "We've got to focus on one game at a time while not losing sight of the big picture. We've got to keep going."
ABOUT THE LAKERS (20-48): Power forward Julius Randle was a bright spot against Houston with a career-best 32 points on 13-of-17 shooting on a night when most everyone else struggled. "I just have to be more aggressive and look to score and run the floor," Randle said afterward. "It's all stuff that I already know that I have to be more consistent with." Shooting guard Nick Young returned to the starting lineup and missed all nine shots in a scoreless effort, and point guard D'Angelo Russell had just five points on 2-of-10 shooting.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Lakers won three of the past four meetings.
2. Milwaukee SG Khris Middleton is averaging 17.1 points in nine games this month.
3. Los Angeles rookie SF Brandon Ingram scored 18 against the Rockets for his sixth straight double-digit outing.