Milwaukee Is No Place for These Lakers : Pro basketball: Their 109-101 loss is their seventh defeat in a row at Bucks’ home. Los Angeles makes 20 turnovers.

Pat Riley never won a game in the Bradley Center, nor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson or Mike Dunleavy when he was a Laker, so what chance did this group have?

Not much, it turned out.

With Dunleavy on the other bench, the undermanned Bucks forced the Lakers into 20 turnovers Sunday night, ran up a 17-point lead and thumped them, 109-101, dumping them into sixth place in the Pacific Division.

The Lakers have lost seven of their last nine games, all five they’ve played in the new Bradley Center and seven in a row in Milwaukee, dating to Dec. 18, 1986. For historical perspective, that was before their back-to-back championships.

Ask Coach Randy Pfund, that was a long time ago.

“I think this was a great example of a team playing with a lot of energy and enthusiasm and a team that’s struggling,” Pfund said.

In case you haven’t guessed, the Bucks were the former, Pfund’s team was the latter and he isn’t enchanted about it.

“You have to play this game hard,” he said. “You have to play quick. You have to play smart. You have to play tough. Certainly this team has shown at times it can play like that but right now we’re not.”

Has Pfund, long-suffering and amiable in public, tried going off on them?

“I’ve picked my spots,” he said, “but right now we’re not that good a basketball team. I don’t see any reason to scream and yell about it.

“I think our guys are trying. I just think we need to change our behavior. I think we need to realize in order for this team to win, there’s going to have to be more urgency.”

The Lakers came into this second meeting with their former coach in good spirits. The day was cold, gloomy and wet.

“Let me get this straight,” said a member of the traveling party to Dunleavy before the game. “You left Santa Monica for this?”

The Lakers thumped the Bucks in the Forum, 114-96, in their prior meeting but this was a different proposition from the opening tap.

With Byron Scott out again, Pfund started his trusty big lineup, with one guard, Sedale Threatt, and A.C. Green in the backcourt to keep him company.

If it was a matter of whether size would prevail over quickness, put this one down for quickness.

Dunleavy put his team into a full-court press midway through the first quarter. The Bucks began forcing turnovers and turned the game into a track meet, with the Lakers assuming the role of fans in the stands. Of their last 19 possessions in the first quarter, the Bucks scored on 16 and jumped into a 34-24 lead.

The Lakers cut it to 54-50 at the half but laid down again in the third period. Pfund got through 1:36 of it, by which time it was 58-50, before calling a timeout to say this wasn’t what he had in mind.

The Lakers went on to score 16 points in the third period and fell behind, 81-66. Pfund enlivened the fourth quarter with his own pressing team, with Anthony Peeler, Tony Smith and Duane Cooper, but without spectacular success.

“Maybe that’s one way to change the team, get another point guard on the floor,” Pfund said.

“I’ve been trying to mold Anthony into that role but he’s frustrated at times and I’m frustrated at times.”

The Lakers started 13-6 with Pfund’s big-lineup combinations but he has been talking recently of going small.

Said Pfund late Sunday night, grinning: “Looks more like an option every day, doesn’t it?”

Laker Notes

Byron Scott, who was out 38 days with a sprained right foot, is out again with the same injury after playing the first three games on this trip. “It just got sore again,” Scott said. “Hopefully, it isn’t back to square one.” . . . Randy Pfund says he’s been “led to believe” Scott may miss more than one game. Pfund says he doesn’t know who else he’ll start Tuesday at Chicago but A.C. Green, who had 19 points and 14 rebounds, will be one. . . . Tony Smith, in his hometown, played for the first time in three games but missed eight of his 10 shots. Elden Campbell was held out of a game by coach’s decision for the first time since his rookie season.