The Los Angeles Lakers suffered arguably their most shocking defeat of the season on Saturday, losing 146-115 to the Chicago Bulls at Crypto.com Arena. The Lakers were dominated in the second half and head coach JJ Redick stated postgame that their poor defense was what stood out the most to him.
“I mean, you give up … 44 points in the paint,” Redick said. “Our turnovers killed us all night, which led to them getting shots in transition. I thought we did a poor job contesting. I mean again, they were 5-22 at the half from three and I think they were 14 for—my math is not good right now but—14-19 in the second half.”
The Lakers, who welcomed LeBron James and Rui Hachimura back from injury here, actually allowed 74 points in the paint, which is atrocious. They also turned the ball over 21 times, which led to 27 points for the Bulls. The Lakers just didn’t defend well enough and compounded that problem by shooting themselves in the foot with all those turnovers.
Redick was willing to give his team some grace because of all that has happened in these last three weeks. Still, he wasn’t going to gloss over the fact that it might have been the worst this team looked defensively this season.
“I love my team, I love those guys,” Redick stated. “That was the worst our defense has looked, frankly, maybe all year, but certainly in the last three months.”
Redick later pointed out that the Lakers’ success earlier this year, which included a stretch of 18 wins in 21 games, was thanks to excellent defense. He believes how well they defend moving forward will ultimately define their season.
“Our success, this season, since January, has been based on our defensive disposition and our ability to defend as a team and our individual pride on the ball and our individual pride in doing your job with whatever it may require,” Redick stated. “… That’s going to determine our success for the next three weeks and that’s going to determine our success if we are able to secure a postseason berth.”
The Lakers certainly aren’t going to go too far in the playoffs if they defend the way they did here. The Bulls went 56-96 (58.3%) from the field and 19-41 (46.3%) from beyond the arc on the night.
Coby White and Matas Buzelis scored at will, finishing with 36 and 31 points respectively. Josh Giddey, meanwhile, took full advantage of the Lakers’ carelessness with the ball to record eight steals.
Time will tell if this was an aberration or a sign of things to come. You’d think the Lakers would iron out their issues on the defensive end, but turnovers could be a problem moving forward as well.
The Lakers have now lost two in a row to drop to 43-27 this season. They are back down to fourth in the Western Conference and are just half a game ahead of the 43-38 Memphis Grizzlies.
The Lakers cannot afford too many more slip-ups if they want home-court advantage in at least one round in the playoffs. They are in action next against the Orlando Magic at Kia Center on Monday at 7 PM ET.
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