LOS ANGELES — Late in what would eventually become the Milwaukee Bucks’ 105-101 win Friday night over the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James knew exactly what he wanted as soon as he caught a pass from Luka Dončić with less than 50 seconds remaining and the shot clock winding down in a tie game.
With the ball in his hands on the right wing, James signaled to Jake LaRavia in the left corner to ask for a screen. LaRavia sprinted across the court to screen for James, intending to draw Bucks shooting guard AJ Green into a switch and pull Giannis Antetokounmpo, the 2019-20 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, off of James. But while that action had triggered switches throughout most of Friday’s game, Antetokounmpo wasn’t leaving James in the final minute.
LaRavia’s screen created a significant delay for Antetokounmpo, but Green pressured James to push him as far away from the basket as possible. As Green retreated to LaRavia, Antetokounmpo hustled back to James, who was now attacking the rim at full speed. Bucks center Myles Turner stepped into the paint to force James to pick up his dribble and take off for the rim.
As James jumped with Turner, Antetokounmpo slid along James’ side and managed to block his shot as James knifed between the Bucks’ rim protectors.
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“Blocked by Giannis,” Lakers play-by-play broadcaster Bill Macdonald exclaimed.
On the other end, Antetokounmpo called the shots for the Bucks’ most important offensive possession of the game, but he didn’t call a shot for himself. Instead, he called for Green to set a screen for Kevin Porter Jr.
That screen isolated Porter against Dončić, who had already been whistled for five fouls. Porter worked his way to a stepback 3 at the end of the shot clock and drew a foul on Dončić, which disqualified the Lakers’ guard from the game and gave the Bucks a chance to take the lead at the free-throw line.
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“I think his trust level with me and with his teammates — because we have a lot of guys — it keeps growing,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said of Antetokounmpo. “Taking him out of the action down the stretch and putting Scoot (Porter) and AJ Green in the action, you can see he was like, ‘This is good for us.’ … That’s just all trust.”
Porter made his first two free throws to give the Bucks a two-point lead, but missed his third attempt. James corralled the rebound and brought the ball up the floor, looking for the same action that briefly freed him up on the Lakers’ previous possession. This time, LaRavia’s screen was not nearly as successful, and Antetokounmpo remained attached to James. Rather than waiting to attack James’ shot attempt at the rim, Antetokounmpo snuck behind him and poked James’ dribble away to Porter, sealing an important road win for Milwaukee.
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On two straight defensive possessions, Antetokounmpo went head-to-head in a match-up against the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and bested him.
“It’s why he’s Giannis, really,” Rivers said. “He’s got the ability to go to another level. That block at the rim was, I mean, him, (Victor Wembanyama), and we should stop. I mean, really, that’s it. To have the ability, to have the timing and more importantly, have the awareness to recover and get back in that, that was huge.”
Part of what makes Antetokounmpo special is his ability to affect the game on both ends of the floor. On Friday night, Antetokounmpo, who averages 17.3 shots per game, took just 11 shots on his way to 21 points, six rebounds and five assists as the Lakers did all they could to keep the ball out of his hands. But that didn’t stop his desire to make big plays on defense.
“Down the stretch, I just wanted to take the challenge,” Antetokounmpo said. “I wanted to stay in front as much as I could, because you knew that he was going to try to make a play. He’s not gonna pass it, and it worked out in our favor.”
Antetokounmpo’s enthusiasm to seal the game by stopping one of the greatest basketball players of all time is exactly what invigorates his teammates and makes them believe they can still be a playoff team despite a poor start related to Antetokounmpo’s early-season injury woes, which has the Bucks still sitting in 11th place in the East.
“He pursued it. He wanted to keep the match-up. He didn’t want to switch. I think he was very adamant about that,” Myles Turner (eight points, six rebounds) said. “And when your best player steps up in moments like that on the defensive side of things, it’s great for morale.”
Heading into Friday’s game, the Lakers were a perfect 13-0 in “clutch” games, when the teams are separated by five points or less at any point during the final five minutes. The Bucks (17-21) were 10-10 in their “clutch” games this season. Taking down the Lakers (23-13), the league’s best clutch team — even with Austin Reaves sidelined with a left calf strain — easily qualifies as one of Milwaukee’s best wins this season.
The Bucks have been playing better basketball recently. Since Antetokounmpo returned to action on Dec. 27, the Bucks have won five of seven games. They have won six of their last nine overall. On this four-game Western Conference trip, the Bucks have now won two of three. After starting the season with a 3-10 record on the road, they have won five of their last seven away from Fiserv Forum.
But Antetokounmpo made it clear that one strong stretch of basketball won’t be enough. To get back into the playoff picture and attempt to peak before the postseason, the Bucks need to continue playing with high-level effort and focus moving forward.
“We’re playing well, right? But we cannot be comfortable. We cannot be complacent right now,” Antetokounmpo said. “We gotta keep on pushing. Pushing our level up, putting our foot on the pedal and keep on moving forward. Like, we’re still 11th. We have done nothing, right?
“This is the time you gotta be locked in and stack up wins, and I think this is the message within our locker room. And we are going to do it. We have no option. We have to do it.”
