CHICAGO — Just over 24 hours before their road game against the Chicago Bulls, the Lakers went through the emotional experience of clinching a last-second road victory over the Indiana Pacers when it looked like a loss was on the horizon. On Thursday night at the United Center, they experienced wh at it feels like to be on the opposite side of a game-winning shot, with Josh Giddey’s half-court buzzer-beater giving the Bulls a 119-117 victory over the Lakers and capping perhaps the wildest finish in the NBA this season. “Devastation,” first-year Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “It’s a hell of a way to lose a basketball game.” The wild game-ending sequence to Lakers-Bulls that ended with a Josh Giddey buzzer-beating halfcourt shot: — Khobi Price (@khobiprice.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T03:11:43.906Z The Lakers appeared to be on the verge of picking up back-to-back road wins for the first time since late February, but the Bulls outscored them 44-26 in the final quarter to beat the Lakers for the second time in six days after blowing them out in Los Angeles last weekend. “It’s hard to lose like that,” said Lakers star Luka Doncic, who had 25 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. “We basically had the game in hand and when you lose like this, it’s hard. Especially on a back-to-back when we fought hard.” After being one of the league’s worst third-quarter teams over the last couple of weeks, the Lakers flipped the script for at least one night, beating the Bulls 32-17 in the third to take a 91-75 lead going into the fourth. “Third quarter was our best defensive quarter,” Doncic said. “Just everybody was flying around, everybody played with a lot of energy.” But Chicago cut its deficit to four (107-103) after Nikola Vucevic (14 points, eight rebounds) knocked down a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer with just over two minutes left. Vucevic’s 3-pointer was the Bulls’ seventh in an 8-minute stretch when Chicago outscored the Lakers 25-11. The Bulls shot 43.2% from behind the arc (19 for 44) for the game, just five days after making 46.3% of their deep shots (19 for 41) against the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena. Chicago made 66 of its previous 153 3-point attempts (43.1%) entering Thursday. “They’re shooting the piss off the ball of late,” said Lakers star LeBron James, who had 17 points, 12 assists and five rebounds. “Statistics doesn’t show for the season, but they’ve been cashing.” Jaxson Hayes (19 points, eight rebounds) helped give the Lakers a bigger cushion with a dunk assisted by Doncic before tipping in a putback layup off a Doncic 3-point miss to give the Lakers a 111-104 lead with 1:28 left. The Lakers maintained a three-point lead after Austin Reaves (game-high 30 points) banked in an 8-footer to give the Lakers a 113-110 lead with 27 seconds left. After Giddey air-balled a floater over James’ outstretched right arm to contest his shot, the Lakers’ lead grew to 115-110 after Reaves made a pair of free throws with 13 seconds left and the Bulls intentionally fouling. Patrick Williams hit a corner 3-pointer after Chicago’s timeout to cut the Lakers’ lead to 115-113 with 10.3 seconds left after James was caught in no-man’s land and contested Williams’ shot late. James appeared to helping on the inbound pass to Vucevic after defensive miscommunication led to Reaves guarding Vucevic, who assisted Williams on the 3-pointer that cut the Bulls’ deficit to two. And after a bad inbound pass from James to Reaves that was stolen by Giddey, the Bulls guard assisted Coby White on another 3-pointer, giving the Bulls a 116-115 lead with 6.1 seconds left. “We still put ourselves in position to win,” James said. “Horrible turnover by myself. Bad miscommunication play before that.” Reaves said of the turnover: “We were walking out of our huddle and they were like, ‘If we could get it in quick …’  to me and Bron, ‘Get it in quick.’ We knew they were going to trap and try to force a turnover, but then eventually they had to foul. I wanted to get the ball and go to the free-throw line. The miscommunication might’ve been I was trying to hold him off instead of popping to the ball. I take just as much responsibility as I’m sure he did. Hopefully we’ll talk about it and figure it out so next time that won’t happen.” Reaves drove around Williams for a layup to give the Lakers a 117-116 lead with 3.3 seconds left, but the Lakers left United Center in defeat after Giddey’s 47-foot game-winner. Giddey finished with 25 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists. White scored 26 points and Kevin Huerter added 21 as the Bulls won for the ninth time in 11 games. Chicago shot 11 for 14 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter. “It sucks,” Reaves said. “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, just because we played well for three quarters. We had opportunity to close the game out in the fourth quarter and we just didn’t do it. “So we’ll learn from it. At this point of the year, you just got to forget about it, honestly. There’s so little basketball left. But at the same time, if we want to get to where we want to get to, we can’t sit here and dwell on that. We got to continue to focus on getting better every day and giving ourselves the best opportunity in the playoffs.” Thursday was the second consecutive day the Lakers blew a late lead. They allowed the Pacers to go on a late 7-0 run to take a one-point lead before James tipped in a buzzer-beating putback to metaphorically break the Pacers’ hearts. But on Thursday night, it was the Lakers who left the floor disappointed, not overcoming their own mistakes late. “It’s just similar situations,” Reaves said. “When we get in those positions, we can’t have any let up. But we knew they weren’t gonna give up.” The Lakers (44-29) lost for the eighth time in 12 games but remained in fourth place in the Western Conference standings because the Ja Morant-less Memphis Grizzlies (44-29) also dropped a road game to the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night. The Lakers’ four-game trip will conclude against the Grizzlies on Saturday. Here's the last 40 seconds of Bulls/Lakers. Insane ending. — Steph Noh (@stephnoh.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T02:52:59.896Z Related Articles Lakers convert Jordan Goodwin to standard NBA contract Lakers edge Pacers on LeBron James’ buzzer-beating tip-in to end skid Lakers’ LeBron James addresses confrontation with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith Lakers seek to recapture defensive identity amid skid Luka Doncic takes responsibility for Lakers’ communication drop-off in loss to Magic ...read more read less