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.