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Despite LeBron James’ big night, the LA Lakers will leave the United Center with a 124-108 loss to the Chicago Bulls. The four-time MVP played 37 minutes and finished with a team-high 25 points to go with 10 rebounds and nine assists. He would have easily gotten a triple-double had one of his teammates made a basket off several of his accurate passes.
“King James” did have a game-worst five turnovers. The Bulls tried to mix their coverage of the superstar throughout the game. Patrick Williams, Alex Caruso, DeMar DeRozan and Ayo Dosunmu all had their opportunities to contain the NBA’s all-time points leader.
One of LeBron James’ unforced errors came via a sloppy play with a little over four minutes in the third quarter. Following a Nikola Vucevic miss, James grabbed the rebound and walked the ball to the Lakers' end of the court. Suddenly, he sent a fancy behind-the-back pass to Anthony Davis, who wasn’t ready to get it.
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Fans on Twitter/X have reacted to the play and the LA Lakers’ loss:
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“When it rains it pours”
Anthony Davis was signaling the Lakers bench about something as he limped back. LeBron James must have thought that "AD" was also moving with him toward their end of the floor. Unfortunately, the miscommunication led to the error.
The Lakers coughed up the ball 14 times and won the turnover battle against the Bulls, who had 16 errors. On Wednesday night, the biggest difference was scoring efficiency. Chicago hit 54.5% of their shots, including 52.9% from deep.
LA mustered 44.7% but only 32.4% from behind the arc. They couldn’t get their shots to fall, and Chicago punished them for it.
LeBron James and LA Lakers have brutal schedule in next three games
After Wednesday’s loss, the LA Lakers will finish their next two games on the road against Western Conference teams that are playing well. They will be in Minnesota on Dec. 21 and then fly to Oklahoma on Dec. 23. Beating the Timberwolves and then the Thunder will be a tall task, particularly away from Crypto.com Arena.
The Lakers are 5-10 for the season away from Hollywood. They will have to play much better against the Timberwolves, who have lost just once in 12 games at home this season. The Thunder, who owns a 9-4 win-loss home slate, will be tough to overcome.
LeBron James and his teammates will finally be home on Christmas Day. They will be hoping to put on a good show against their historic rivals, the Boston Celtics.
