All Lakers Expert Predictions Ahead Of Thursday Night Game Against Bucks

Milwaukee could make mincemeat of a shorthanded LA roster.

Tonight on TNT and Spectrum SportsNet, a skeleton crew of your current Los Angeles Lakers will try not to get embarrassed too badly by the Milwaukee Bucks, as LA awaits most of its new big-minutes role players ahead of a probable weekend arrival.

All Lakers scribes Noah Camras and Alex Kirschenbaum unpack some burning questions ahead of tonight's action.

How will Anthony Davis bounce back from a miserable performance on Tuesday?

Noah: I mean this is a prime opportunity for AD to show up and show out tonight on both ends of the floor. The Lakers are going to run their offense through him, and he’s going to be asked to play somewhere around 35 minutes as the team’s only center. This would be a great time to show everyone that he’s back in charge of this team, and just wanted to let LeBron do his thing on Tuesday.

Alex: With no LeBron James on the floor and no Russell Westbrook hogging the ball, I think we'll be treated to plenty of that fun Dennis Schröder-AD two-man game, and that he will notch, at least, a double-double in the loss.

This is a low-key huge game for role players in danger of losing their rotation spots entirely. How do you expect them to respond tonight?

Alex: I think LA head coach Darvin Ham will keep Austin Reaves in the rotation because of his handle, and rookie Max Christie because of his upside. Wenyen Gabriel and Lonnie Walker IV seem most likely to lose out on every-game minutes. Accordingly, it would behoove them to ball out tonight. I think each guy will score in double digits.

Noah: Yeah this feels like a really important game for both of these guys, especially if they want to get consistent minutes moving forward. Gabriel is going to bring tons of energy on both sides of the ball, but I want to see Walker truly take over as a scorer tonight. He should easily surpass 20 points in his sixth man role tonight.

Will the Lakers beat tonight's eight-point spread against the Bucks? Could they actually, you know, beat the Bucks outright?

Alex: They're going to get demolished, but it doesn't matter. This is not what the actual Lakers will look like for the rest of the year. Much more intriguing conversations will be had on Saturday, when we get a chance to take a gander at some of the team's new pieces.

Noah: Highly unlikely they win. Slightly less unlikely they cover. The Lakers are beyond shorthanded tonight, so unless they shoot the lights out, they could be run out of the gym pretty early on. But for the sake of a good matchup, I’ll take the Lakers to cover, probably as a backdoor cover.

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