The Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Chicago Bulls at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday night for their final home game of January.
In light of their recent struggles, the Lakers desperately needed to win this game, and fortunately they did so, cruising to a 141-132 victory on the strength of D’Angelo Russell’s continued outstanding play.
LeBron James, who missed the previous contest for the Lakers, opened this one with a corner triple to compensate for time lost. However, ex-Lakers player Alex Caruso also got off to a good start for the Bulls with eight consecutive points that established an early lead.
Despite Caruso’s early surge, the Lakers responded with three-pointers Austin Reaves, Taurean Prince, and Russell all connecting to offset the deficit.
After a sluggish start offensively, Anthony Davis and Rui Hachimura both responded with two buckets off the bench, despite the Bulls holding a slender 32-31 lead at the half.
Jarred Vanderbilt led the Lakers to a reestablishment of the lead with 22 points in his first shift, which included a corner triple and two dunks in the early seconds. Typically, Vanderbilt does not contribute significantly to the Lakers’ offense.
From that point forward, James and Hachimura each made three-pointers in succession for the Lakers. This gave the Lakers an early advantage, which was extended to 73-56 at intermission following a 3-pointer by Russell, a midrange shot by James, and a buzzer-beater by Vanderbilt.
Russell maintained his momentum by extending the lead to 20 in the third quarter with a layup and two triples. Russell continued to amaze with three consecutive three-pointers later in the quarter, which energized the crowd.
In the third quarter, neither team engaged in significant defensive activity. As a result, the Lakers defeated the Bulls 39-36 to build a comfortable 112-93 lead into the fourth quarter. Los Angeles tallied a season-high 112 points in the first three quarters.
James continued to dominate the Lakers’ deep shooting to start the fourth quarter. The audience was once more energized by Reaves’s monumental transition dunk, which effectively put the game out of reach.
The Lakers never faced a significant threat of squandering the game, despite the Bulls’ efforts to close the gap to eight in the dying minutes.
