MILWAUKEE — Energy, or as two-way guard Jordan Goodwin put it, “juice” has been available at a premium for the Lakers over the last couple of months.
The consistent high-level effort helped the Lakers win 20 of their previous 26 games entering Thursday’s road matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum.
So for that effort to take a dip in Monday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets, a game when the Lakers were without several frontcourt players, wasn’t too much of a concern in the locker room.
Forward Dorian Finney-Smith will be available against the Bucks after missing Monday’s game because of left ankle soreness. Guard Luka Doncic is questionable with right ankle soreness.
Forwards LeBron James (left groin) and Rui Hachimura (left knee) and center Jaxson Hayes (right knee) remain out.
“It’s always frustrating losing games like that, especially when everybody’s energy is kind of low,” Goodwin said. “But I don’t think it’s a problem for us. We’ll find it and be back. The next game, we’ll have more juice than we had [on Monday].
“So I don’t think it’s a problem. We’ll be OK.”
But Monday’s loss was the second consecutive game when Coach JJ Redick expressed confusion regarding the execution he saw from his team in ways that playing harder don’t simply fix.
Not setting ball screens in the proper spots.
Allowing the Nets, who made 40% (18 for 45) of their 3-point attempts, to take “dare” shots. All but two of Brooklyn’s 3-point attempts were classified as “wide open” (29) or “open” (14) on the league’s official website.
Not communicating at the same level they have been over the last several weeks.
“We just gotta be better,” Redick said, “And we’ll use practice to clean things up and make sure everybody’s on the same page.
The Lakers also struggled against Brooklyn’s defensive pressure, with the Nets often guarding the Lakers’ ball handlers full court or three-fourths of the court.
Doncic, who had five of the Lakers’ 15 giveaways, turned the ball over three times in the second half after the Nets blitzed/double-teamed him – a coverage Doncic has faced often during his seven seasons in the NBA.
Doncic has at least five turnovers in each of the last six games.
“I am comfortable with that,” Doncic said about playing against double-teams. “You could see it in the other games. [Monday] wasn’t a good example of it [with] me.
“But you could see it in the other games, when they’re blitzing, we’re in great spots. And that’s what JJ said about communication, that was important. That’s my fault and we should have done better at that.”
The Lakers, who have dropped their last two games, are entering a stretch of six games in eight days, which could be critical for their playoffs seeding push.
They slipped down to the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference standings with the loss to the Nets and the Denver Nuggets’ victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday, with the Nuggets taking possession of the No. 2 spot.
The Lakers will wrap up their four-game trip against Denver on Friday, which will be the second night of a back-to-back, before playing two more back-to-back sets at Crypto.com Arena:
• Phoenix Suns (Sunday) and San Antonio Spurs (Monday).
• Nuggets (Wednesday) and Bucks (Thursday).
The Lakers (40-23) entered Wednesday ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies for No. 3 by percentage points and were just one game ahead of the Houston Rockets for No. 5.
“You definitely think about all the losses, especially the ones like this. The one in Boston. Every loss you take is a big loss,” Goodwin said. “Like you said, the conference, everybody is right there trying to battle for a spot. So we gotta win. If not, everybody is moving up and we’re moving down. So we gotta keep winning.”
LAKERS AT BUCKS
When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
Where: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee
TV/radio: TNT, Spectrum SportsNet/710 AM
