Late miscues haunt Lakers in 'frustrating' ending vs. Bulls

CHICAGO -- The bar to clear for anything to register as truly shocking for this season's Los Angeles Lakers is pretty high after their Luka Doncic trade stunned the basketball world last month, but the buzzer-beating results of back-to-back games in the past 48 hours certainly would qualify.

A day after LeBron James was L.A.'s hero with a tip-in to beat the Indiana Pacers as time expired, he was part of the Lakers' unraveling in a 119-117 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night that Josh Giddey won with a 47-foot 3-pointer from beyond half court.

"Devastation," Lakers coach JJ Redick said after the loss. "It's a hell of a way to lose a basketball game."

The Lakers led by as many as 18 points in the fourth quarter and were up by five with 12.6 seconds left after two free throws by Austin Reaves.

Then the wheels came off.

First, Bulls forward Patrick Williams hit a 3 from the corner with 9.8 seconds left to cut L.A.'s lead to 115-113, with James late to close out after shifting towardNikola Vucevic beyond the arc. Then, James had his inbounds pass stolen by Giddey while trying to find Reaves in the corner, setting up a Coby White 3 with 6.1 seconds left that put Chicago up 116-115.

"Horrible turnover by myself," James said after finishing with 17 points on 8-for-20 shooting, 12 assists, 2 steals and a team-high 4 turnovers.

Reaves said he also contributed to the miscue.

"I think the miscommunication might've been I was trying to hold [his defender] off instead of popping to the ball," he said. "I take just as much as responsibility as I'm sure he did. Hopefully we'll talk about it and figure it out so next time that won't happen."

As huge as Giddey's half-court heave was, the steal was just as consequential.

"He kind of just bounced it," Giddey, who had 25 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists, said of James' errant pass. "I was surprised at how easy I was able to grab it."

L.A. called a timeout and Redick drew up a play to put the ball in Reaves' hands. Much like Reaves' winning shot against the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day, the Lakers' guard drove straight to the hoop and scored a layup to put the Lakers back up 117-116 with 3.3 seconds left.

Giddey inbounded the ball immediately to Williams, who passed it back to Giddey, setting up his winning shot as James jumped in front of him to contest as he let it go.

"It sucks," said Reaves, who had 30 points on 10-for-17 shooting. "We probably had a high-percentage chance of winning after my layup went in. There's not many half-court buzzer-beaters to lose a game. And it's just, it's frustrating."

It was L.A.'s eighth loss in its past 12 games, and the Lakers' defense -- which have given up only 43 points combined to the Bulls over the second and third quarters Thursday -- gave up 44 points in the fourth.

"Give up 44, no matter how many points you put up, it's not good ingredients for success," James said.

The Bulls shot 11-for-14 from 3 in the final quarter.

"I mean, 11-of-14 in an empty gym is really good," Redick said. "So that's unreal shooting."

Redick said it was the third win the Lakers fumbled away this season, citing previous losses to the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic. James said the only way for the Lakers to properly respond is to play a complete game Saturday against the Memphis Grizzlies when they finish their four-game trip.

"There's another game in two days, less than two days, that's how you do it," James said. "That's the NBA. You can't go into a game on Saturday thinking about what happened on Thursday."br/]