Lakers try to rally late but Jimmy Butler carries the Bulls to a 118-110 victory
The Bulls were coming off a hard-fought loss to the Clippers on Saturday and playing without Dwyane Wade. But the Lakers were lethargic until the last two minutes, which led to Chicago taking a 118-110 victory at the Staples Center on Sunday night.
Jimmy Butler led all scorers with 40 points, and the Lakers’ (7-7) last-ditch comeback efforts were dampened by their inability to slow him down.
The Lakers did pull to within five in the final minute, but could not hit the shot that would ultimately get them back into the game against the short-handed Bulls (9-5). The Lakers were led by Lou Williams and his 25 points off the bench, and reserve forward Larry Nance Jr. chipped in 18 points.
Butler scored 13 points in the first quarter, eight of them coming at the free-throw line. He was guarded by D’Angelo Russell early on, and used his side advantage to draw two shooting fouls away from the basket. The Lakers erased a some errant shooting early with a burst of energy, and Lou Williams’ half-court buzzer-beating basket at the end of the first knotted the score, 30-30.
Williams, who made eight of 14 shots from the field and five of six from behind the three-point arc in the game, stayed hot to start the second. With the Lakers’ second unit outplaying the Bulls’ bench, Williams climbed to 14 points in just three minutes. Larry Nance Jr. followed his lead, collecting 15 first-half points — with two coming on a rim-shaking alley-oop dunk — before he went back to the bench with about four minutes left in the second quarter.
But the Lakers had trouble slowing the Bulls and trailed 62-61 at halftime. Williams led the Lakers with 19 first-half points, while Butler paced the Bulls with 19.
The Lakers were hot to start the third quarter, and two threes by Luol Deng helped them build an eight-point lead. That was soon erased, however, by a string of mistakes. Russell and Julius Randle each committed turnovers trying to pass inside. The Lakers failed to keep the Bulls off the offensive glass on two possessions. Trying to collect offensive rebounds themselves, the Lakers gave up easy transition points and the Bulls soon tied the score once again.
After a Lakers timeout, the Bulls collected three straight offensive rebounds before Butler glided inside for a layup. Butler scored again before stuffing in a wide-open dunk a few possessions later. That left Jordan Clarkson looking at his teammates, palms angled toward the stadium’s ceiling, wondering who was supposed to be in Butler’s way. He had 31 points and five assists after three quarters, which helped the Bulls stretch their lead to five to start the fourth.
Butler went to the bench at the start of the fourth, but the Bulls methodically stretched their lead to 12 before Lakers Coach Luke Walton called a timeout with 9:39 left in the game. The Lakers made small pushes from there, but the Bulls had an answer for everything.
The answers usually came in the form of a three-pointer. Nikola Mirotic, who finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds, made a long-range shot to push the lead back to 12, and Isaiah Canaan — who finished with 17 points and three three-pointers off the bench — did the same after Williams sliced into the deficit with a three-pointer.
And in the end it was Butler having the final word. He sank two free throws. He knifed to the rim for a layup on one possession and then scored on a contested layup in transition on the next. With the Lakers trailing by five in the final minute, Butler won a jump ball over Randle and then set up a Rajon Rondo floater that sealed the Lakers’ fate.
Twitter: @dougherty_jesse
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