The Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Chicago Bulls in humiliating fashion by 31 points on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena. On Thursday, they looked for payback against the Bulls in Illinois.
They lost again, but instead of losing by getting hit by a sledgehammer, they did so through a few self-inflicted wounds late in crunch time.The Lakers overcame an early deficit and took control of the game by outscoring Chicago by a combined 69-43 in the second and third quarters combined. But after taking a 91-75 lead into the fourth period, they fell asleep and allowed the Bulls to gradually peck away at their advantage.
Chicago came to within 111-110 with 46 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Kevin Huerter, and the Purple and Gold were clearly in trouble. For a moment, it looked like they had saved themselves when Austin Reaves hit a short bank shot and then made two free throws.But the Lakers practically gifted this game to the home team in the final 12 seconds as if it were Christmas morning.
Patrick Williams hit a 3-pointer to bring the Bulls to within 115-113, and on the ensuing play, LeBron James threw a bad inbounds pass that was promptly stolen by Josh Giddey. Star guard Coby White quickly hit a 3-pointer, and just like that, L.A.
was down 116-115 with 6.1 seconds left.Reaves again came to the rescue by scoring a layup with 3.
1 seconds left. But the Lakers were lazy and perhaps overconfident, as they didn't apply any real pressure on Chicago when it inbounded the basketball. As a result, G.
