Lakers’ loss is longshot

The rally came, but a little too late.

The Lakers wouldn’t lose, couldn’t lose to the hapless Milwaukee Bucks, but they did.

Tuesday at Staples Center was supposed to be the time and place for another home victory, but it turned into something as surprising as the Lakers’ early-season success -- a 109-105 loss to the Bucks.

In more than one way, it brought to mind the three-for-all days under Rudy Tomjanovich, no better illustration than a team-record 37 three-point attempts, besting the 36 in a December 2004 loss to Miami, when Tomjanovich was the coach.

The Lakers tried to beat the Bucks’ zone defense by ripping off one three-pointer after another, making 11 of them, but not enough.

Coach Phil Jackson obviously didn’t like what unfolded before him, referring to the events of the evening as “chucking up a lot of threes.”

Kobe Bryant badly missed a three-point attempt with six seconds to play that would have tied the score. He finished with 27 points on seven-for-23 shooting.

Usually one of the last to leave the locker room, Bryant normally sticks around after games to talk to reporters. He left relatively quickly Tuesday night, seemingly resigned to a loss.

“The game got out of hand,” said Bryant, who made six of 14 three-point attempts. “We shot the threes to try to get back in it.”

Bryant’s counterpart, Michael Redd, had 45 points for the Bucks, who were 4-9 before the game and juggling their lineup while continuing to adjust without injured forwards Charlie Villanueva and Bobby Simmons.

The Bucks’ record made it an unpleasant loss, as did the concept of a long stretch of road looming in the Lakers’ future.

Sixteen of the Lakers’ first 20 games are at Staples Center. They have six left before the home-friendly portion of the program disappears.

“We’ve got some long road trips ahead,” forward Lamar Odom said. “We need every victory at home we can get.”

An hour before the game began and the night turned sour for the Lakers, Jackson was in a light mood, drawing a laugh from reporters when asked what the Lakers would do without assistant coach Frank Hamblen, who is in charge of scouting the Bucks but stayed home because of flu-like symptoms.

“The rest of us are not totally up to speed on Milwaukee, so we’re running a little bit short on information,” Jackson deadpanned. “We know Redd scores, that’s one thing.”

Jackson also shrugged when asked what motto would be written on the whiteboard in the locker room. Before Sunday’s game against struggling New Jersey, assistant coach Jim Cleamons wrote that the Lakers needed to “Be aware of hungry dogs.”

“[Hamblen] always has ‘Beware of the snow cows,’ ” Jackson said. “He considers the beauties of Milwaukee’s snow cows, is what he likes to call them, the dairy state that it is.”

There was little that would link the Lakers with beautiful through the first three quarters, which ended with the Bucks ahead, 79-78.

Bryant showed some explosiveness with an alley-oop dunk with 9:36 left in the first quarter, but he missed his next eight shots before finally making a three-pointer with 7:15 to go in the third quarter.

Beyond him, the Lakers’ two centers, Andrew Bynum and Kwame Brown, were practically nonexistent, combining for five points and seven rebounds in 44 total minutes.

Despite it all, the Lakers rallied from a 13-point deficit with 7:34 to play, but could never overtake the Bucks.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

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KEYS TO THE GAME

* Threes were wild, with the Lakers taking a team-record 37 three-point shots and making 11.

* The Bucks made seven of 16 three-pointers. Michael Redd made five of nine from beyond the arc and finished with 45 points on 16-for-30 shooting.

* Kobe Bryant missed eight consecutive shots after making his first attempt, a dunk. He finished with seven-for-23 shooting.

-- MIKE BRESNAHAN