Lakers' loss to Bucks ends 13-game unbeaten streak in clutch games
Before Friday, Los Angeles had not lost any game that was within 5 points with less than five minutes remaining.
LOS ANGELES – In the final 40 seconds Friday night, Giannis Antetokounmpo blocked LeBron James at the rim and stole the ball from the league’s all-time leading scorer, making the game’s two biggest defensive plays in the Bucks 105-101 win against the Lakers.
The stops kept the Lakers (23-13) from winning their 14th-straight “clutch” game of the season. The NBA defines “clutch games” as ones within five points in the final five minutes. The Lakers opened the season winning 13 of those games in a row, one fewer than the NBA record set by the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors.
GIANNIS FORCES THE TURNOVER TO WIN IT FOR THE BUCKS 💪
MILWAUKEE WINS IN LA! pic.twitter.com/AzklbPo5mV
— NBA (@NBA) January 10, 2026
James led a fourth-quarter comeback and put the Lakers ahead by four with a little more than three minutes left. But Milwaukee (17-21)scored 11 of the game’s final 14 points, including six from the free-throw line.
Luka Dončić fouled out for just the third time in his career, the sixth foul sending Kevin Porter Jr. to the free-throw line after Dončić’s leg made contact with Porter Jr.’s lower body on a 3-point try with 16.2 seconds left.
“I don’t think he shoots like that,” Dončić said of the contact. “The referee said it was a foul. So, I guess it’s a foul.”
Porter Jr. made two of the three free-throws to put the Bucks ahead by two.
James scored 13 of his 26 points in the fourth, and it looked like he had a window for more on what potentially could’ve been the game-tying hoop, but Antetokounmpo poked the ball loose after James beat him off the dribble.
“I turned the ball over,” James said. “You definitely can’t do that at that point and time. So, Giannis, he made a great play by getting his arm and tipping it from behind, but (I) can’t turn the ball over — obviously.”
Dončić shot just 8 of 25 from the field and just 4 of 8 from the free-throw line.
“I thought there was a few drives early that he felt like he got fouled on,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “And then he missed some free throws, and I think he’s been such a dynamic driver and paint-toucher for us that those plays can kinda mess with your mind a little bit.”
“But he’s won of so many games and he’s not gonna, every, whatever game it is, you’re naturally gonna have not your best stuff. And he’s didn’t have his best stuff tonight.”
Dončić added: “It was a terrible day for me.”