LAKERS 105 BUCKS 92 Bucks hit road only to suffer blowout on first stop News Milwaukee Bucks

Los Angeles - There was little doubt in the mind of coach Scott Skiles about what the Milwaukee Bucks would have to do to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night at the Staples Center.

"We're going to have to play our best game," Skiles said before the game.

And that would entail?

"They can win in a variety of ways," Skiles said. "They have great length. They can win an offensive game. They can win a defensive game. They steal balls, they run the floor. So we've got to take care of the ball and we have to do a good individual job on their big players. And then our bench play is going to have to be very good."

As it turned out the Bucks came up way short in any number of areas in a 105-92 blowout loss that opened their three-game Western trip.

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. Shooting 29%, the Bucks trailed after one quarter, 24-16. In the second quarter, neither team scored until Trevor Ariza dropped in a layup with 8 minutes 50 seconds 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, who went scoreless for 4:58 midway through the quarter, trailed at halftime, 43-31.

The Lakers blew the game open in the third 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. Skiles went with his second unit in the final 7 minutes of the quarter and Los Angeles held a 74-54 lead going into the fourth.

The game returned the Bucks to the road but the way center Andrew Bogut looks at it, the National Basketball Association schedule-maker was just toying with them when two games were scheduled last week at the Bradley Center.

"It's a tease," Bogut said. "We go right back on the road for another two weeks."

Such is life for the nomadic Bucks this season.

After playing a league-high 12 road games over the first five weeks of the season, the Bucks were able to settle in a bit, enjoy some home cooking and play both of their games last week at home.

But now they are back on the road again. Their game against the Lakers Sunday night at the Staples Center was the first of a three-game trip that will also take them to Phoenix on Tuesday and Golden State on Wednesday. After that, they will return home to play Saturday night at the Bradley Center against Indiana before heading out again next week for games at Miami, Philadelphia and New York.

That means that for the second time already this season, the Bucks will have gone through a stretch in which they played six of seven games on the road.

For the first time in franchise history, the Bucks will play 18 of their first 28 games on the road. No other team will play 18 of their first 28 on the road this season.

Forward Richard Jefferson thinks the Bucks need to stay mindful of a secret for success when traveling throughout the league.

"The NBA has a very simple formula," he said. "If you can win 30 of your home games, which most good teams do, and you split on the road, it's a 50-win season. So you have to try and come very, very close to winning half your road games.

"That's the way you have to go about this. You have to go out and believe (that you can win).

"It's not, 'Oh, we can get this one or this team is playing good so we don't know.' No, you have to go out believing that you can win every game."

The Bucks' two victories at home last week gave them a 5-4 record at the Bradley Center. They took a 4-8 road record on this trip.