Bucks hit road only to suffer blowout on first stop News Milwaukee Bucks

Los Angeles - It was more of the same on the road for the Milwaukee Bucks , who turned in a shoddy performance Sunday night and were blown out of the Staples Center, 105-92, by the mighty Los Angeles Lakers.

The Bucks trailed by as many as 27 points in losing their fourth straight road game and falling to 4-9 on the road. The Bucks, coming off two straight victories at home, fell to 9-13 overall.

"We haven't played very well on the road now for a little while," coach Scott Skiles said. "And this (Lakers team) is a very high level team. We have things we have to address. I'm disappointed, obviously, in the way we came out and we know that have a lot of things that we have to address and we'll go about addressing them.

"The whole starting unit, we came out the first quarter and seemed disinterested and the other team got the lead so I'm going to give other guys an opportunity to see if they can get us back into it."

The Bucks set a negative tone early by shooting 29% in the first quarter and falling behind by 10 only 9 minutes into the game. After a 15-point second quarter, the Bucks trailed at halftime, 43-31. The Lakers then blew open the game with a 16-4 run to open the third quarter and Skiles had his starters on the bench with 7 minutes left in the quarter. The Lakers led, 70-43 late in the third quarter and took a 74-54 lead into the fourth.

The Bucks ended up shooting 38.0%, made four of 16 three-point shots (25.0%) and 18 of 26 (69.2%) free throws, and turned over the ball 19 times. The Lakers shot 48.6% and made 32 of 41 free throws (78.0%).

None of the Bucks' starters scored more than seven points, and they combined for a mere 18.

"Oh, man, it felt like there was a lid on the basket," forward Charlie Villanueva said. "In the first half we played great defense, it was just that we couldn't score. We just couldn't score. Guys were getting clean looks but we're going to have nights like that. We just have to bounce back from it."

Skiles didn't think his team was ready to play from the opening tip.

"We were low on energy and we weren't changing ends," he said. "Now, we did miss a lot of open shots. Sometimes that can take the wind out of guys' sails. We just weren't sharp tonight."

The Lakers took control early and held a 20-10 lead after a free throw by Kobe Bryant that was the result of a technical foul on Skiles. The Bucks trailed after one quarter, 24-16.

In the second quarter, neither team scored until Trevor Ariza dropped in a layup with 8:50 left to give the Lakers a 10-point lead. Bryant returned from a break with 6:44 left and with the Bucks still in a deep freeze on offense, the Lakers scored eight straight to take a 34-20 lead. The Bucks went scoreless for 4:58 midway through the quarter.

Bryant, who was serenaded with chants of "MVP" from the crowd during the game, took a lob from Vladimir Radmanovic for a dunk that ignited a 7-0 Lakers run to open the quarter. Bryant later bypassed an open three-point shot to pass to Andrew Bynum in the lane and Bynum turned a layup into a three-point play. That was part of another 7-0 run that gave the Lakers a 59-35 lead.

"They're 17-2 and we knew it was going to be tough to come in here and get a win," Bucks center Andrew Bogut said. "But we were never in the game. We just couldn't make a shot. We had some easy shots in the first quarter and we couldn't make them. They're one of the best teams in the NBA now and we have a long way to go to get to that level."

The Bucks are 2-12 against teams with won-lost records of .500 or better on the day they played them, and 6-0 against clubs with losing records.

No one has scored more than 25 points for the Bucks in any of their last 12 games, and only three times this season has one of their players had more than 25.