LOS ANGELES — Chicago Bulls forward Patrick Williams relocated to the weak side of the floor, unimpeded by any Los Angeles Lakers defender.
Josh Giddey, seeing the opening, fired an overhead bullet pass across Los Angeles’ defense. Williams caught the ball without a Lakers defender within six feet of him as LeBron James, back on the floor after missing the past two weeks, and Luka Dončić had a defensive miscommunication and breakdown. Williams drained the 3-pointer, stretching the Bulls’ lead to 20 points, their largest of the evening.
The Lakers tried to quickly push the other way, but James fumbled his dribble in the backcourt, with the loose ball rolling to Giddey for his seventh steal of the evening. He scooped the ball to Coby White, who drilled a step-back 3-pointer over James’ outstretched arm to push Chicago’s lead to 23 points with 6:42 left in the fourth quarter.
It was that kind of night for the Bulls. And, unfortunately for the Lakers, it was that kind of night for them as well.
The story of the greatest players in NBA history. In 100 riveting profiles, top basketball writers justify their selections and uncover the history of the NBA in the process.
The story of the greatest players in NBA history.
Lakers coach JJ Redick called timeout and emptied his bench not even halfway through the fourth quarter, a rarity for a group that has been 22-10 since Jan. 15. The Lakers eventually lost, 146-115, allowing a season-high point total and tying the most points allowed in franchise history in a regulation home game.
Despite getting LeBron James (left groin strain) and Rui Hachimura (left knee tendinopathy) back in the lineup after each missed two-plus weeks, the Lakers were embarrassed by their worst defensive performance of the season.
“That was the worst our defense has looked, frankly, maybe all year,” Redick said firmly. “But certainly in the last three months.”
It was a costly loss for the Lakers, who had jumped back up to No. 3 in the West on Friday night with the Denver Nuggets losing in another game without Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray. Following their thrashing by the Bulls, Los Angeles (43-27) is No. 4 in the West. They are just 2½ games behind the No. 2 Houston Rockets but also just three games up on the No. 7 LA Clippers.
Redick, who tries to coach and lead with emotional intelligence as much as basketball IQ, noted that this was the Lakers’ seventh game in 10 days after their grueling six-game-in-eight-day stretch. It was also the return of James and Hachimura, changing lineups, the rotation and the playing style on both sides of the ball, to some extent.
Redick offered his team some “grace,” a common Redick term, while also noting that their “disposition and the mentality” were concerning. There were too many stretches in which the Lakers looked like a group not on the same page, which was uncharacteristic and jarring based on their relatively consistent play over the past two-plus months.
“Honestly, I thought when we came out, we looked flat,” Redick said. “We felt flat. We moved flat. They just moved better than us all night. … And it just didn’t feel like our group overall really had like juice tonight, if that makes sense.”
Chicago dominated the Lakers in a variety of ways. They crushed them in the paint, 74-42. They dominated them in transition, 30-12. They also thrived off of miscues, outscoring them 27-14 in points off turnovers.
Coby White torched them with 36 points on 12-for-17 shooting. No Lakers defender could stay in front of him. Josh Giddey had a triple-double (15 points, 10 rebounds and 17 assists) and nearly had a quadruple-double (eight steals). Rookie Matas Buzelis, a player the Lakers choose to help off of, scored a career-high 31 points and made five 3s.
The Bulls outscored Los Angeles 81-53 in the second half, turning the Lakers’ three-point halftime deficit into a 31-point defeat.
“We didn’t play good defense,” James said. “We gave ’em a little bit of everything. S—, we gave ’em points in the paint. We gave ’em fast-break points and we gave ’em 3s. We can’t give everything, for sure.”
While the defensive end was concerning, it was compounded by the Lakers’ 21 turnovers, 12 of which came from Luka Dončić (seven) and James (five). Those turnovers often sparked the Bulls offense, which also bled into their rhythm within their half-court offense.
Dončić partly made up for his turnovers by scoring 17 points in the first quarter and 29 overall in the first half, keeping the game close. He finished with 34 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and was the only Laker who looked comfortable offensively aside from Austin Reaves (23 points).
“I can’t be losing the ball seven times,” Dončić said. “That’s way too many for me.”
James, who missed seven games, and Hachimura, who missed 12 games, both displayed understandable rust in their returns — and acknowledged not being 100 percent yet.
James had 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting, six rebounds, four assists and three steals, momentarily heating up in the second half but largely appearing out of rhythm.
“I just take it day by day,” James said. “I can’t worry about what can happen in the future, but, I got through today. I’m obviously, get some work on it tomorrow, hopefully a little bit on the plane. It’s a long flight to Orlando. And then once we get to Orlando and get ready for Monday.”
Hachimura, who scored five points on 2-for-6 shooting and grabbed two rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench, estimated he’s at “70 to 80” percent physically. Redick said Hachimura would be on a minutes restriction of 20 to 24 minutes for now.
“My knee is going to be like that for a while, I think,” Hachimura said. “I can’t really get back to 100 percent right away. I got to rest for a long time to get back to normal. But I don’t think we have that, so we just got to maintain and manage it.”
The Lakers, who have been the league’s fourth-best defense since Jan. 15, universally agreed they lost this game because of their atrocious defensive effort, communication and execution. Redick declared that their ability to get back to that level of defense — as well as how quickly they can do so — will dictate their season.
“That’s gonna determine our success for the next three weeks,” Redick said of their defense. “And that’s gonna determine our success if we are able to secure a postseason berth.”
The Lakers don’t have much time to dwell on the loss, as they’re embarking on another four-game road trip to Orlando, Indiana, Chicago and Memphis next week. They leave for Orlando on Sunday.
They have the third-toughest remaining schedule, according to Tankathon. Eight of their final 12 games are on the road. They still have three back-to-backs, with the status of multiple players still unclear for those games. Among their final 12 games, eight of them are against teams in the top eight in their respective conferences.
“We got 12 games to position ourselves in the postseason,” James said. “We pretty much can control our own destiny if we win ballgames and not have to be in the Play-In.”
Redick has stated multiple times that the Lakers’ goal is to be in the top six and to avoid the Play-In, which they’ve participated in in three of the past four seasons. To avoid that outcome, Redick made it clear the Lakers will need to play with urgency and lock in to recapture the magic they had before injuries halted their momentum.
“You gotta get reconnected,” Redick said. “We, however, don’t have a lot of time to do that. And it’s gotta be now. It can’t be in a week. It can’t be in two weeks. It’s it’s gotta be now. It’s gotta be Monday morning in our film session, in our walkthrough for Orlando.”
Sign up to get The Bounce, the essential NBA newsletter from Zach Harper and The Athletic staff, delivered free to your inbox.
(Photo of LeBron James and Jordan Goodwin: Luke Hales/Getty Images)
