The Los Angeles Lakers have shown some strong potential at times this season. At other times, they have had some embarrassing losses.
They have mostly taken care of teams that came in against them with a losing record, but on Wednesday, they failed to do so against the Chicago Bulls.
After a quick start, the Lakers fell behind and trailed 33-22 at the end of the first quarter. They fell behind because of the usual culprits: 3-point shooting and rebounding. They trailed by as many as 18 early in the second quarter. But that’s when L.A. tightened its defense and made the Bulls cool offensively and commit turnovers, while it started to hit from the outside with more frequency.
It pulled within six points at halftime, and while the game remained competitive for much of the third quarter, it suddenly fell behind by double digits once again. The Lakers weren’t able to make another rally, and they lost, 124-108, to a Bulls team that was 11-17 coming into Wednesday.
As usual, 3-point shooting did the Lakers in. They shot just 32.4% from that distance, while Chicago was a sizzling 18-of-34 from downtown. They outscored the Bulls 54-34 in the paint and had four more free-throw attempts and three more fast-break points. But all that simply wasn’t enough to make up for the 18-point disparity in 3-pointers.
Los Angeles is 15-13 and visits the Minnesota Timberwolves, who have the best record in the Western Conference and the best defensive rating in the NBA, on Thursday.
Anthony Davis: B/B-minus
Davis’ rebounding helped keep the Lakers in this game in the first half. However, after several huge offensive performances, he wasn’t his usual self in terms of scoring. He had 19 points on 7-of-15 field-goal shooting and 5-of-8 from the free-throw line, although he did well in other facets of the game with 14 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.
In the third quarter, Davis rolled his ankle and had to come out of the game. For the last 4:17 of the period, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham went small. He decided to not insert either of his backup centers, Jaxson Hayes or Christian Wood. To make matters worse, LeBron James was on the bench during that span. What was a 76-70 Chicago lead increased to 90-75 before Rui Hachimura hit a 3-pointer to end the quarter.
Davis returned for the fourth quarter and played most of the period. He continues to show an admirable willingness and desire to play while hurt or injured. But L.A. needed more from him offensively in this game.
Taurean Prince: A
After going cold in the second half on Monday’s loss to the New York Knicks, Prince did his part against Chicago. He scored 16 points and shot 4-of-8 from 3-point range to go along with four rebounds, four assists, one steal and one blocked shot.
Cam Reddish: C/C-plus
As usual, Reddish made a good effort defensively to pressure the ball, and he was able to come up with two steals. Offensively, he struggled for most of the contest. Although he shot a solid 3-of-8 from downtown, he was 5-of-14 overall.
The forward finished with 13 points, four rebounds and two assists, and the Lakers need him to hit consistently from long-range if they are to score enough points and improve their transition defense enough to win games.
D'Angelo Russell: D
After an excellent November, Russell has been as cold as a Chicago winter in December. On Wednesday, he was as cold as a polar vortex. He made one of his six shot attempts and missed all of his four 3-point attempts. Russell didn’t quite make up for that in any other area of the game; he had just two assists and one rebound in 28 minutes.
LeBron James: A-minus
James came out on point: He scored seven of the Lakers’ first nine points to give them a 9-4 lead in the opening minutes. Overall, he provided his usual production by contributing 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting, 10 rebounds and nine assists, although he committed five turnovers. He even made a nice defensive effort with two blocked shots and one steal.
Austin Reaves: A
While Russell has been struggling in December, Reaves has been getting hot like the weather in Australia at this time of year. He shot 9-of-14 and scored 21 points to go along with three assists. The guard gave L.A. a lift in the second quarter and helped with its rally, and down the stretch, he tried to will it back into the game. Unfortunately, he received little support from players who don’t have the last name of James.
Rui Hachimura: C-minus/D-plus
This was a game in which Hachimura could’ve provided a spark to get L.A. back into the thick of things. But he didn’t. He shot 2-of-9 and scored five points in 16 minutes.
Jarred Vanderbilt: D
In 13 minutes, Vanderbilt scored just one bucket, and he didn’t grab a single rebound. He recently admitted that he’s not 100%, but he’s trying to work his way back into game shape after returning from heel bursitis early this month.
Gabe Vincent: C-plus
Vincent made a decent effort in his first game since late October. He quickly got an assist to Jarred Vanderbilt for a dunk shortly after coming into the contest, and he finished with three assists, three points and one rebound in 14 minutes.
Ham said before the game that Vincent will be on a minutes restriction, but the hope seems to be the guard’s grit and tenacity will not only help the team but also become contagious.
Christian Wood, Maxwell Lewis, Jaxson Hayes, Max Christie: Incomplete
The only contribution made by any of these players in one minute of garbage time was a bucket by Hayes off an assist from Hachimura.
