MILWAUKEE — The Lakers’ defensive success over the last few months, entering Saturday with the league’s best defensive rating since Jan. 15 and the second-best since Dec. 8, has been built on a combination of improved effort, scheme and positional size/versatility.

But with the Lakers lacking the latter in light of their injuries, with their starting frontcourt flying back to Los Angeles after Monday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets, coach JJ Redick acknowledged the difficulty of maintaining their defensive aptitude.

LeBron James, Jaxson Hayes, Rui Hachimura and Maxi Kleber were all missing Thursday.

“It’s a massive challenge,” Redick said. “I’ve sung LeBron praises lately and earlier in the season, I sung Rui’s praises. Frankly, Jaxson’s been awesome for us defensively. We really missed him the last two games, both on the defensive side and as a vertical spacer on the offensive end. Rui just connects us on both ends.

“So missing those guys is huge. And obviously missing LeBron is huge.”

Those absences were once again felt on Thursday night with the Lakers (40-24) getting blown out by the Milwaukee Bucks, 126-106, their third consecutive loss on a four-game trip that concludes tonight in Denver, which is the first of three back-to-back sets over the next week.

“A different loss than the other night in Brooklyn,” Redick said. “Our competitive level was really high. It’s a tough matchup if we’re not at full strength. That’s just reality. But, in terms of the guys, the connectedness, the spirit, the competitiveness, it was there.”

Luka Doncic led the Lakers with 45 points and 11 rebounds in 36 minutes, his highest scoring total since joining the team.

“Nothing matters if we lose the game,” Doncic said. “So at the end of the day, it’s a team sport and we gotta be all together. And whatever somebody do, it’s great. But at the end of the day, you gotta win, and we didn’t do that.”

Thursday was Doncic’s first 40-point performance as a Laker and his first since Dec. 15, 2024, which was his third-to-last game with the Dallas Mavericks.

“Obviously, not there yet,” Doncic responded when asked he close he is to play how he wants to. “But I think (Thursday was) a little bit more. Like I say every day, a little bit more. But still not there. Gotta get some things off my body. Get them to feel better and then be ready.”

Austin Reaves added 28 points (10-for-17 shooting, 4 of 7 on 3s), eight rebounds and three assists, his best game since a two-game absence because of a strained right calf.

“I’d just seen a couple shots going in there and kind of got in a little rhythm,” said Reaves, who had an ice pack on his shooting hand/wrist postgame. “Last couple games, I haven’t shot it well. And it’s good to see them go in the basket. But we didn’t do what we were supposed to do.”

Doncic shot 14 for 27 from the field and 7 for 13 from 3-point range, with the 26-year-old Slovenian star’s shot-making keeping the Lakers in the game despite the Bucks’ offensive success against the Lakers’ depleted lineup.

The Bucks (37-28) scored at least 31 points in each of the first three quarters.

Doncic scored 16 of the Lakers’ 29 first-quarter points and scored another 13 in the second, with the Bucks taking a 71-63 lead into halftime.

“Luka looked very comfortable regardless of the coverages they gave him,” Redick said. “In a couple of those turnovers when they blitzed him weren’t necessarily his fault, to be honest with you. Again, it goes just back to some execution things and playing lineups we haven’t played.

“And then AR was great all night. Sometimes with him, the tendency to want to get going early, particularly with Bron out, is there and didn’t score a ton early, but then really got it going from the second quarter on and was fantastic offensively.”

But Milwaukee took advantage of Doncic and the Lakers cooling off after a strong start to the third, until Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 10 points during a 24-7 run that extended Milwaukee’s lead from 76-70 to 100-77 late in the third quarter.

The Bucks took a 102-82 lead into the fourth.

Redick pulled his main rotation players with 4:06 remaining and his team trailing 122-102.

Milwaukee was led by Antetokounmpo (24 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists) and Damian Lillard (22 points, 10 assists and six rebounds). Brook Lopez added 23 points, five assists, four rebounds and four blocked shots, while Kevin Porter Jr. (22 points) and Gary Trent Jr. (16 points) combined for 38 of the Bucks’ 45 bench points.

The Lakers’ reserves scored 20 points.

Doncic also had six of the Lakers’ 13 turnovers, his seventh consecutive game with at least five turnovers.

“I gotta take care of the ball,” Doncic said. “It’s the most important thing in basketball. So I gotta take care of it. And obviously, they were my fault and I gotta do a better job doing that.”

Thursday was the first of six games in a span of eight days.

Doncic said “we’ll see” when asked about his availability for tonight in Denver.

“I’ve said this, I don’t know how many times the last couple weeks,” Redick said. “But the amount of managing that we’ve had to do for availability ... I knew this as an analyst. I remember as a player having guys, and I think the game has changed a lot. I’ve talked about it a lot over the last three years.

“It’s really hard to have yourself and your body ready to go every night. And so all those decisions, they’re made in real time. And frankly, some of the guys that are playing, they’ve been banged up. It’s just reality. It’s just the NBA right now.”