After a big team win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, just two days ago, the guys fell short and dropped the last game of their homestand to Chicago, 118-108.
Things started to deteriorate in the first quarter, Chicago took off and didn’t look back.
“They came out with a sense of urgency,” Head Coach Darvin Ham said after the game.” We came out a little flat, turned the ball over early. We weren’t aggressive enough or physical enough,”
The Lakers committed too many turnovers, struggled to defend the perimeter, and are still searching for their rhythm as lineups and roles are continuously changing every game.
“Now we’re all together. We have to learn on the fly, relearn one another,” Darvin said.
In better news, LeBron James returned to the floor this fateful Sunday—exactly one month later (to the day) that he left the lineup. “Doctors told me I was healing faster than anybody else they’ve seen before,” LeBron said after the game.
He joined his squad off the bench. This is the second time in his career that this has happened, his first time off the bench was December 11, 2007.
Just halfway through the first quarter, Bron approached the scorer’s table to check in, fans started to roar, their excitement grew and grew because he still made time for the chalk toss, and everyone loved to see that. In his return, LeBron had a team-high 19 points and eight rebounds, three assists.
Among the inconsistencies, Troy Brown Jr. Played brought tempo to the Lakers. TBJ had 18 points, 6 rebounds, two blocks, and two steals today and started off 2-for-4 from three and 3-for-5 from the field for eight first-quarter points.
Overall, the Lakers shot pretty good from the field, 50%. Dennis Schröder had 17 points. Malik Beasley had 15, Austin Reaves had 13. Guys were shooting. Again, it was their defending that was the problem.
The major problems came from two guys with L.A. roots. There were a lot of guys with Los Angeles ties in the arena today, UCLA’s Zach LaVine and USC’s DeMar Derozan, and a few former Lakers—Andre Drummond, Patrick Beverley, and of course the beloved Alex Caruso. Before the tip, Bron and Caruso met at half court, dapped each other up and had a quick convo.
But it was Zach and DeMar who led their squad past Los Angeles and played a huge part in the Bull’s firepower this afternoon. The team went 54.0 from the field and 45.2% from the arc. Zach finished with 32 points and four assists. DeMar had 17 points, 10 assists, and six rebounds.
Now, the team has seven games to go, their next five are on the road. They’ll play the Bulls again on Wednesday.
