Lakers’ bad luck continues as Friday’s game just became much tougher

The Los Angeles Lakers have not had the most promising start to the 2022-23 season. While the team has played well as of late against bad teams to move the record to a more respectable 8-12, the fact remains that there is plenty to improve on the Lakers.

Los Angeles will show its true colors in the upcoming stretch of games. The Lakers’ next five games are against teams .500 or better this season. Thus far, Los Angeles has just a 2-12 record against teams above .500.

The toughest of those five games is on Friday against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. Giannis and the Bucks are already a very tough team to beat on the road and unfortunately for the Lakers, they are going to be even tougher to beat than they have been all season.

Of course, Middleton’s return would so happen to line up with when the Lakers come to town. As if the Bucks weren’t already an extremely tough matchup for Los Angeles. Now the team has to deal with the best version of this Bucks team.

Khris Middleton returning cements a Lakers loss against the Bucks.

I hate to be negative here but there is almost zero chance that LA can win this game with Middleton back in the fold. Even without Middleton the Lakers would have had an extremely tough time but you never know; Anthony Davis and LeBron James could take over the game.

With Middleton playing those chances drop to zero. Sure, the Lakers have shown a lot more promise in recent weeks but this is still a team that has struggled mightily against every good basketball team that they face.

With a serious lack of size, the Lakers do not have the means to stop Middleton in this game. That is what happens when you build a guard-heavy roster. While Anthony Davis focuses on slowing down Giannis, Middleton is going to have a favorable matchup regardless of who is defending him.

Milwaukee has downright dominated the matchup against Los Angeles in recent years and that will continue on Friday. Not only have the Bucks won three in a row, but they have won nine of the last 11 matchups. On Friday, they will extend that streak to four with 10 wins in the last 12 games.

Lakers fans will fall in love with theorized Bulls trade

Anything can happen in the NBA and Lakers fans would be absolutely ecstatic if this trade with the Chicago Bulls became a reality.

But hey, maybe the purple and gold will at least cover!