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A few days back, we noted the struggling Lakers were wading into dangerous waters kicking off a stretch of 11 roadies in 16 games, starting tonight in Milwaukee.

While we wouldn't have recommended it, they've apparently decided to forgo wading, and have instead cannonballed right on in. Bucks 100, Lakers 89.

Among the topics of conversation:

• What does losing tonight mean looking forward?
• A bad follow up to Wednesday's breakout game for Pau Gasol, who missed 12 of his 18 shots and simply couldn't find the range on a host of good looks. Offensively challenged as they are, the Lakers can't afford this sort of inefficiency from Pau.
• Defensive meltdowns, fueled by turnovers, fueled by intense ball pressure from Milwaukee. Expect to see teams continue getting up in their collective grill until the Lakers learn to compensate with better spacing, ball, and player movement.

All of that, and some footage of a super angry deer.

The Lakers entered this contest with a 1-6 road record, but I was willing to cut them some degree of slack. Yes, championship-caliber teams can win on the road, but at the same time, the majority of their losses have come against quality teams. Portland. Denver. Miami. Orlando. The Clippers. You'd like to see better results, but at the same time, this perspective, along with the knowledge of how little practice time the Lakers have received, can perhaps quell whatever urge to push a panic button.

However, a loss to a sub-.500 Milwaukee Bucks team playing the second end of a back-to-back and short Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson? That's a different story. I wouldn't blame any member of the Laker Nation who requires a strait jacket to avoid jamming that big, shiny red button. Here are five takeaways from the loss.

1) The Lakers are a team that simply can't afford to the turn the ball over.

Offensively, they're not smooth and prolific enough to waste possessions, and defensively, they're too slow to survive possessions constantly on their heels in transition. These realities came to an ugly head during the first half, when the Lakers continually gave the ball away against a Bucks team, as I noted in the morning's What to Watch post, already skilled at forcing turnovers. The Lakers coughed the ball up 10 times due to carelessness, along with the inability to dribble out of ball pressure.

That this team isn't flush with quality ball-handlers isn't exactly a government secret, but Saturday, that deficiency was comically bad. The Bucks wisely decided to pressure anybody with the ball, and too often, this approach resulted in the Lakers struggling mightily to counter. Even getting the ball across halfcourt to avoid an eight-second violation wasn't a given. The lowlight might have come when Troy Murphy, of all people, found himself isolated at the right elbow. With one defender in his grill and zero options at his disposal to counter, the Notre Dame product stood helplessly holding the ball for anywhere from seven to 10 seconds. The inevitable strip came courtesy of Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, followed by the inevitable transition dunk.

It was a microcosm of the Lakers' utter failure to deal with crowded quarters. They did a better job taking care of the ball in the second half, but by then any semblance of rhythm was already destroyed.

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The Milwaukee Bucks have tumbled a long way since the "Fear the Deer" playoff run of 2010. Last season, they ended below .500, and this campaign is paced to match, with Andrew Bogut's fractured left ankle doing hope no favors. However, that doesn't mean this game should be taken for granted as a win to open the Lakers' back-to-back road swing. For starters, no team 1-6 outside of its home turf can ever count on a win away from its soil. Plus, as inspired as the Lakers played against the Clippers, their nonexistent track record of consistency means they're essentially starting from scratch.

In other words, this may be a winnable game for the Lakers, but it's best to treat it as one requiring blood, sweat and tears for victory.

For some perspective on the Bucks, we tracked down Jeremy Schmidt, who runs the Bucksketball blog for the True Hoop Network. Below are his responses to four questions about the Bucks, plus a couple thoughts of my own.

Land O' Lakers: The "Jax" era in Milwaukee has appeared volatile and not nearly as productive as hoped. What have been the issues on and off the court, and do you see them smoothing out as the season progresses?

Jeremy Schmidt: Thus far, things haven't been great, but that has a lot to do with Andrew Bogut having missed a lot of games. There have been some spats, as Jackson has moved out of the starting lineup and occasionally hasn't played the minutes he's accustomed to. But that's just a learning curve he and Scott Skiles are going to have. The biggest issue with Jackson is that he isn't a great player and the biggest issue with the Bucks is that they are an average team. None of that will change, and Milwaukee will continue to be sad about the Bucks.

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Or more accurately, "the Compton in my game," as it pertains to Brandon Jennings. Milwaukee Bucks point guard's So Cal ties are specific to Compton. It's a reminder of his unique path to the NBA, just like hitting the court against real competition at the tender age of five. Or transferring to Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, despite already playing at Dominguez High School, a basketball force in its own right. Or bypassing college for a professional stint in Italy, the first American kid to make such a leap. Jennings has always been his own person and the foundation of that confidence was built in Compton.

Andy Kamenetzky: Which parks were you a regular at when you first began playing?

Brandon Jennings: Rowley Park in Gardena. That's where I really started playing. That's where I came back this year during All-Star weekend. I went up there and [renovated] the basketball court. There were a lot of great players growing up coming out of there. The atmosphere was crazy. Back then, AAU wasn't really that big yet. Especially for me, because I was younger. So everyone played in the park in the recreation league.

I started when I was about five at the park. I was playing in a seven-and-under [league] and I was five, so I was the youngest on the team. They told me as long as I can get the ball up to the rim, then I could play.

AK: How intimidating was that at age five?

BJ: It wasn't intimidating at all. I felt like I could play with the best kids. As long as you put me out on the court, I was gonna play hard.

AK: How did you manage to hold your own at such a young age?

BJ: I was faster than all the other kids, and back then, I had a pretty good handle with the left hand.

AK: Is this one of those things like Tiger Woods and his clubs as a little kid? You picked up a basketball and it automatically felt right?

BJ: Well, I started playing basketball when I was about three years old. After that, everything else just came naturally. I had older cousins that used to let me hang with them, so I got my toughness from them. They said I could play as long as I don't cry. That was their main thing. No whining and no crying. Just go out there. If they knock you down, get back up and keep playing.

AK: How did starting out so young against bigger guys shape your skill set and development?

BJ: I was able to pick up a lot of things faster than most kids, because just being around older kids and seeing some of the things they did. Also, just watching some of my favorite players back then. I was a big Allen Iverson fan and a big Kobe Bryant fan. Kobe Bryant used to have the afro back in the day, so I used to have all his sneakers and AI's shoes.

AK: The situation with your father's suicide happened when you were about seven or eight. How did that affect you as a basketball player? Did it change the way you approached the game, in terms of what you wanted from it?

BJ: I just knew that I would have to be the man of the house. When I was about 12 years old, I knew I had to take the game more seriously if I wanted to be able to provide for my family. I knew this was my way out. It made me realize that if this was something I wanted to do, then I would have to be serious about it and I would have to work hard every day to be able to be one of the best players.

AK: That's when you really began to take basketball seriously?

BJ: Yeah. When I was 13, I won the AAU Nationals in Midgets and ever since then, I just took off from there. I never looked back.

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After the game, the fans were in fact not saying "Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuke." They were booing. And I don't blame them. The Lakers certainly turned in a performance worthy of jeers. If a win over the Wolves sparked an angry speech from Derek Fisher, then tonight's lecture might be salty enough to make Bobby Knight blush.

The good (relatively speaking)
During the game, Khloe Kardashian tweeted she could tell her husband was sick. (And by concluding this info with ":( " you could feel the sadness.) Well, Odom's night wasn't quite "Michael Jordan flu game," but his impact outweighed what was put forth by the majority of his presumably healthy teammates. Odom wasted little time making his presence felt, scoring the first six Laker points, driving layup from either side of the basket. The night was concluded with a 12/10/6 line, and I liked his energy even when the Lakers' fate was clearly sealed.

Odom also provided the best purple and gold highlight. After a one-handed retrieval of a long three-pointer from Ron Artest, he spotted his New York buddy running the baseline, then set up him for a layup with a behind-the-back bounce pass. Sensational, if ultimately the basketball equivalent of empty calories.

Was this a brilliant showing? No, but were any Laker awarded a gold star, I'd give it to LO by default.

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I realize I'm mixing my sports here, but bear with me, because Monday afternoon in El Segundo, Andrew Bynum once again proved he is probably the athlete on the planet least compatible with the Belicheckian concept of disguising injuries to the media.

If Tom Brady was wheeled into New England's training facility encased in a full body cast, he'd claim everything was fine. If he acknowledged the plaster at all, likely Brady would chalk it up to some sort of advanced moisturizing treatment. ("The wife says the layers really let the Neutrogena do its work. She was right about the hair, why not this?") As for Belicheck, he'd probably pretend he didn't know who Brady was in the first place.

Kobe Bryant, to swing things back to basketball, is of the Belicheck school. He's the Black Knight -"It's just a flesh wound!"- of the NBA.

Bynum, on the other hand, will tell you exactly what's happening with his body, in a way uniquely able to sound all at once alarming and soothing. This afternoon, Phil Jackson was asked about a report from the L.A. Times following Sunday's game in Toronto in which Bynum said he felt soreness in his surgically repaired right knee. "I didn't hear any report about it. It’s news to me," Jackson said. "He came out and practiced today. He got a little stiff during practice and we took him out for a second to kind of get himself together again. He’s still tiring, and that’ll happen as he gets into game condition."

No worries then, right Andrew? You're not feeling any real pain, perhaps a sharp pain, that might alarm Lakers fans, right? "Basically, that’s just it. A sharp pain on certain moves," he said.

(Uh oh.)

Don't be frightened. "It’s just something that I have to deal with," he said. "As long as the swelling stays down, stays minimal, it’s going to be ok.” And fortunately, Bynum reports swelling hasn't been an issue. He played this afternoon, will play tomorrow against the Bucks, and is looking forward to challenges presented by Miami, San Antonio, and beyond. Bottom line, Bynum hasn't yet made the connection between words like "sharp pain" and increased blood pressure readings among Lakers fans.

Words matter, Andrew.

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After winning a game against the Clippers they deserved to lose, the Lakers took their lumps in Chicago. Happily, they quickly righted the ship on the season's first long road trip, ripping off five straight wins in generally impressive fashion. Not exactly against top notch competition, but you can only play the teams on the schedule, right?

Given how they'd played going in, no game could be considered a shoe in.

Now, though, things are looking up. Andrew Bynum is back, a welcome sight for Pau Gasol. The bench remains an asset, and, finally, after a great deal of hype...

...it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Saturday vs. Miami (Saturday, 2 pm PT, ABC)
No disrespect to the Bucks or anything...

It's been talked about since the schedule was released and, shockingly enough, the Lakers and Heat were paired together for the marquee matchup of Christmas Day. Fortunately, despite the long build up and accompanying hype the game itself has the potential to be as intriguing and exciting as a regular season game can be. Setting aside momentarily legitimate criticisms about the process of forming the team (perhaps you heard LeBron James made his announcement on television!), from the moment Miami inked their Big Three there's been an intense push to figure out how this high cost, high stakes experiment in franchise construction would work.

And if it would create a rivalry between the teams. To the point more than one Laker was asked opening night, after the Heat fell to Boston, if it felt weird to be rooting for the Celtics so soon after the Finals. The Lakers, not surprisingly and quite rightly, found the line of questioning bizarre (at best).

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All in all, it was a solid night for the Lakers, who weathered a very hot start for the Bucks before pulling away in the second half. Here's tonight's breakdown, box score, and Lakers Live! replay.

And below is the replay of Tuesday's Lakers Late Night. Topics included:

-An efficient start to the first multi-game road trip, and what it could mean going forward.
-Shannon Brown led the bench with 21 points, part of a strong effort from the reserves, who are playing so well some of L.A.'s starters are finishing games on the bench.
-Whether or not the Lakers need to go after another big, be it Erick Dampier or another warm body.

By the way, the fellow in the background at the top of the show? He's our editor, the man who managed to get the show running after three failed attempts on our part. As opposed to some sort of creepy lurker type...

Through the first half, at least, it seemed as if the Bucks were drinking from the same well as the Suns had Sunday night. A hot start for Milwaukee kept the game close into the third quarter before the Lakers asserted control and kept it the rest of the way.

A good, if imperfect, start to the road trip over a solid team.

Here's how it broke down ...

Three Up:

1. Shannon Brown -- ShannonFest '10-'11! continues, as once again we learn what Brown can do for the Lakers. Seven-of-nine from the floor, including a blistering four-of-five from beyond the arc for 21 points, not quite his high in purple and gold but among his higher output games. More than simply shooting well were the types of shots he made. Confident, important looks reaching into the fourth quarter. With 10 minutes to play, Brown hit a critical jumper, pushing L.A.'s lead back to 10 after a cold start to the final period for the second unit. From there, Brown kept trucking. He scored 10 of the team's first 14 points in the quarter. No wonder he was still on the floor to drill the dagger three with about 2:30 to go. Phil Jackson couldn't have pulled him off the floor if he wanted to.

Brown is earning himself a lot of fourth-quarter minutes thanks to play like this, with Kobe Bryant sliding to the three (and Ron Artest sliding to the bench). If he keeps it up, talk of a Most Improved Player award at the end of the year will build like the push to get Brown into last year's dunk contest.

"I've never stopped trying to get better," Brown said after the game of his play this season. "I love this game. This is what I love to do. ... I'm just trying to get better every year."

Last week, Jackson described himself as "enamored" with the quality of Brown's shot. Can't believe P.J. is any less smitten after Tuesday's outburst. Brown acknowledged he's as good a shooter now as he has ever been, but were that the only leap, he'd be a different player, but not the guy we've seen through the first 11 games of the year. "I'm a smarter basketball player," he said, which is the key. His understanding of spacing, of where to move the ball and himself, is vastly better now relative to his earlier days in L.A. Health helps -- the injured right thumb hampering Brown last season is fully healed -- but doesn't explain it all. He's a better, more confident player.

Brown was out front of a very positive night for the Lakers bench. Matt Barnes had his typical Swiss Army game, with nine points, five boards, two assists, two steals, and a block. Steve Blake, back in the lineup after missing Sunday's game because of flu, hit two key threes. Even Devin Ebanks pitched in with a steal and bucket in the first half. They were particularly good in the second half with Bryant on the bench, helping keep his minutes at a very tidy 33:18.

2. Patience -- Something about the Lakers makes teams shoot the lights out, it seems. The Bucks, not exactly noted for their outside gunning, came out red hot from the perimeter, making five of seven 3-pointers in the first quarter, part of a 12-for-19 outburst that included a ton of long jumpers. Milwaukee kept it up through the first half, really. But rather than get impatient, the Lakers kept doing what they needed to do offensively. They didn't fall in love with the three, taking most of their looks from downtown off passes from the interior or penetration. Meanwhile, Pau Gasol was a steady force inside, scoring 14 first-half points. Artest put himself in the post, as did Bryant. Lamar Odom did good work there, as well, and as a team the Lakers piled up fouls against the home team, earning themselves 19 trips to the line in the first 24 minutes (they'd finish with 29, making 24).

Generally speaking, the Lakers executed very well on that side of the floor, resisting the temptation to go shot for shot with an uncharacteristically torrid Milwaukee squad and against one of the better defensive teams in the Eastern Conference.

3. Stars -- Bryant's final shooting percentage wasn't unusually brilliant -- 10-for-23 -- and he has scored 31 points in more spectacular fashion. But he was particularly big in the third, scoring 13 points in a wide variety of ways, from transition to the three to a nice little jumper at the right elbow, coming off the high screen. He took the shots available to him, passed out of doubles, and generally managed the game in a way you'd want him to. Meanwhile, Gasol was equally impactful. He had 18 points, 10 rebounds, four assists (including a great post-repost-kick sequence earning Blake a corner three in the first half), and three blocks. While Andrew Bogut did pull down 18 rebounds, Gasol helped limit Milwaukee's star center to five-of-13 shooting. All in all, a steady night for both of L.A.'s A-Listers.

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As Brian noted in his Week in Preview, Phil Jackson thinks a three-game roadie could help the Lakers rediscover some execution recently lost. Everything from hotel living to unfriendly arenas to a basic lack of familiarity spark relative discomfort, which in turn can lead to a sharpened focus. Like Shannon Brown told me after Sunday's loss to Phoenix, you really have no choice but to play better on the road. Assuming you want to win, that is.

Of the three consecutive contests played outside Staples Center, tonight's date with the Bucks appears by far the biggest challenge. Here are some items to think about once the ball is jumped:

Brandon Jennings the scorer vs. Brandon Jennings the playmaker
The Lakers want the former, not the latter. This season, Jennings is shooting (almost) 41 percent from the floor, and a look at the young point guard's game logs manages to make the paltry clip feel bloated. The kid's managed just two games with a 50 percent success rate, plus five where he didn't even hit 37 percent. The bottom line is he's not yet an efficient shooter.
Even with a reportedly improved tear drop move and a recent hot streak from beyond the arc (10-19 in his last four games), he's still a guy I don't fear calling his own number.

Calling someone else's number, however, Jennings is arguably the team's blood source. He leads the team in assists (6.3) and for relative NBA novice who often devotes a lot of time dribbling and probing, his turnovers are impressively low (2.5). Moreover, the team averages an NBA-29th 17.6 assists per game, meaning Jennings sets up more than one-third of the team's buckets for an already putrid offense. Cut off this particular snake's head, and I'm guessing you're left with a reptile none too venomous.

Keep a body on Jennings' teammates and deny clean entries. Cut off his passing lanes. Sag off at times and dare him to let fly. If you turn Jennings into a one-man gang for points, he could be a lightning-quick handful, especially heading to the cup (where the most hay is made), but I'll gladly take my chances.

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"I think it will help us as a team to do that," Phil Jackson said Sunday of the value of road play. "I think it just helps a team focus on themselves, get themselves together, understand their defense, and the importance of playing defense together."

Good thing he's so keen on the experience, since L.A. heads out for a three game trip starting Tuesday in Milwaukee. A cheerful attitude always helps.

Here's your weekly primer...


Game of the Week

Sunday vs. Golden State, 6:30 pm PT
It's not often the Warriors represent a genuine G.O.T.W. option, but for the time being, they do. At 6-4, Golden State is second in the Pacific Division, and by achieving merely below average stats defensively and on the boards have actually made themselves into something resembling an actual basketball team (granted, one the Lakers still blew out in their first meeting of the season). I don't believe for a moment Golden State will make the playoffs -- I'm not sure they've even started mixing that batch of Kool-Aid yet -- but, perhaps thanks to their new uniforms (or more likely a more engaged head coach in Keith Smart) the Warriors are making progress.

One big sign came Saturday night in Milwaukee, when despite scoring only 72 points, they kept the game close late in the fourth. Granted, the Bucks don't exactly overexert the guy responsible for tallying their points on the scoreboard, but over the last few seasons the notion Golden State could score under 80 points and still be in the same ZIP code of the opposition would have been laughable.

Though David Lee will likely miss the game with an elbow infection, Monta Ellis and Steph Curry make the Warriors a team best taken seriously. Plus, given all the attention to teams finding success against the Lakers by going small, as Denver did Thursday and Phoenix does by definition, another game against a height-challenged team will carry a little scrutiny.

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Go ahead, call the hype surrounding the free agent summer of 2010 oppressive. Insufferable. Unendurable. Or any other appropriate word available at Thesaurus.com. Measured by the way it has reshaped the NBA, you'd have to call it monumental as well. The buildup was long, but the payoff has been legit.

Most the high profile action has centered around the Eastern Conference. There have been plenty of teams making moves, some rising (I read an article or two about happenings in south Florida, for example), some not. Of course, only one can ultimately come between the Lakers and a possible third straight title.

So which teams currently look dangerous?

The New Elephant in the Room

Miami Heat

LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh constituted either an incredible foundation without much built on top or an incredible house without much of a foundation. Pick one. Point being, when it seemed like Miami's new triumvirate would be surrounded by Mario Chalmers and a gaggle of minimum wage vets and second rounders, predicting a title for next season was a little tricky. Mega-stars aside, this isn't Hickory High, where running with four guys is inspirational. They needed some dudes. But in the last several days, they've added Mike Miller and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and re-signed the very valuable Udonis Haslem. Frankly, they're miles ahead of where I figured financial constraints would force them to be after inking the South Beach Three.

They'll still need to integrate a shocking amount of "new" into next season, but it's now likely Miami will have the requisite depth to win a title next season to go along with all the top shelf talent. L.A. seems to match up well, but then again, nobody's quite sure what the Heat will look like fully formed, or how they'll play on the floor.

A Finals matchup looks a lot more realistic now than it did the morning following the big TV spectacle. These guys could be scary.

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With Kobe Bryant coming through yet again to ice a road win in Boston, we felt it only appropriate to list The Mamba's top five shots of the season. Granted, this may be a little premature since Kobe's pace, skills and flair for the dramatic likely means revisiting this concept again by mid-February. But we're all about walking on the wide side here at Land O' Lakers blog. So without further ado...

5) A bummer start to 2010 was avoided after Kobe drilled a trey from 26-feet out to secure a 109-108 win over the Sacramento Kings and overcome what had been a largely sloppy effort at Staples.

Sacto, a terrible road squad, hit nearly 54 percent of their shots on the night, including a jaw-dropping 52.6 percent from distance. As I noted afterward, Lakers P.A. announcer Lawrence Tanter grew so tired of saying "Spencer Hawes," he began altering inflection just to remain engaged.

Thankfully, that iconic timbre was eventually used to inform fans their beloved purple and gold came out on top.

4) There's an old saying: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Well, we're not used to seeing Kobe fail to succeed, as was the case when his mid-range turnaround jumper over Charlie Bell at the left elbow drew iron at the end of regulation, sending the game to overtime. We are, however, used to seeing 24 come through at some point, as it was with his second go-around against Bell, busting out a virtually identical shot from nearly the identical spot just as the five bonus minutes expired.

The Lakers left Laverne and Shirley's hometown with a 107-106 victory, neutralizing big efforts from Michael Redd and Ersan Ilyasova.

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But first, a funny moment with Andrew Bynum after the game, addressing trade rumors involving him and Chris Bosh. I asked if it bothers him when his name gets bandied about, which led to a rather amusing exchange and phrasing.



This kind of deadpan flightiness is typical of why Bynum is often considered the Lakers' most unintentionally funny player. I love the idea of Drew being "the throw in." Basically, Toronto is trying to get Adam Morrison, and if Bynum must be taken on to match salaries, so be it. And on the odd chance Bynum happens to be in fact the big prize, "even better."

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Like certain prize-winning dogs, the Lakers came out on top, but that doesn't necessarily make the triumphant pretty to look at.



The breakdown is below the jump.

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