The Los Angeles Lakers play host to the Milwaukee Bucks at Crypto.com Arena on Friday.

The Bucks (41-22) have looked like a different team since the All-Star break, entering this matchup winning six of their last seven games. The one defeat was their most recent outing, getting blown out by the Golden State Warriors. It's rare to see Milwaukee handled like that, trailing by nearly 40 points in that ugly defeat. It's a blip on an otherwise clean radar, and it truly looks like this Milwaukee team has turned things around despite that horrific outing. We all expected the Bucks to match up with the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals and the most recent winning streak has them battling the Cleveland Cavaliers for the two-seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Lakers (34-30) have been much better in the second half as well, entering this matchup winning 10 of their last 15 games. What's distressing is that LeBron James suffered an injury in the most recent loss on Wednesday, and it's unclear how much time the superstar will miss. It's a revelation that this 21-year vet is playing over 35 minutes a night, and one has to wonder how much longer his body can hold with that type of workload. In any case, he's proven doubters wrong throughout his career, and this is another opportunity. If he's unable to go, they'll need D'Angelo Russell to step up, with the guard averaging nearly 25 points per game since his trade rumors were squashed a month ago.

These teams have yet to play this season, but they split their two matchups last year. With that said, Milwaukee has won 10 of their last 13 games over Los Angeles in total.