{"id":563565,"date":"2026-01-27T06:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/563565\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T06:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:54:19","slug":"3-takeaways-from-los-angeles-lakers-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/563565\/","title":{"rendered":"3 takeaways from Los Angeles Lakers loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fans at the United Center always show up a little differently for LeBron James.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s game against the Los Angeles Lakers marked the latest chapter in the long iteration of Chicago\u2019s relationship with the NBA\u2019s greatest star. The stands were dotted with an abnormal amount of yellow and purple as Lakers fans crowded the railing for a glimpse at their favorite out-of-town players.<\/p>\n

In better years, this relationship meant that Bulls fans showed up ready to cheer against James. That remained true for much of Monday\u2019s game. All they needed was a little fuel on the fire.<\/p>\n

And despite sinking into an early 20-point deficit, the Bulls gave it to the Lakers in spurts throughout the fourth quarter. When Matas Buzelis<\/a> threw a ball off James while tumbling out of bounds on defense to convert a change of possession. When Kevin Huerter drew an offensive foul when the Lakers tried to push their luck in transition by baiting the larger forward into pushing his arm into the guard\u2019s neck. When the Bulls cut the lead down to three points with just under six minutes remaining.<\/p>\n

But in a game defined by its stars, the Bulls simply couldn\u2019t keep up. The Lakers didn\u2019t even need their heroics to come from James. Luka Don\u010di\u0107 handled the closing shift instead, burying the Bulls with a handful of late 3s to fend off any last attempt at a comeback. Jaxson Hayes delivered the final body blow of the night, throwing down an Eastbay dunk in transition after stealing a ball off Josh Giddey to put the Lakers up 14 points with just under three minutes remaining.<\/p>\n

Don\u010di\u0107 finished with 46 points \u2014 an almost pedestrian performance from an All-Star averaging 33.4 points per game \u2014 to end the Bulls\u2019 four-game winning streak<\/a> with a 129-118 loss.<\/p>\n

\"LosLos Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James reacts after he was called for a foul during the second half against the Chicago Bulls in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we did a lot of good things tonight,\u201d guard Coby White<\/a> said. \u201cWe shot the ball really well. It just happened they got a guy named Luka who had 46 points.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the final minute, the Bulls faced a bleak revelation as Lakers fans rumbled the arena with a collective chant calling for Bronny James to enter the game \u2014 their home court was not their own, at least for one night.<\/p>\n

Here are three takeaways from the loss.<\/p>\n

1. Coughing it up.<\/p>\n

The Bulls handed the game over to the Lakers in the second quarter with a complete collapse of organization on offense.<\/p>\n

Chicago scored 25 points in the second quarter. Los Angeles scored 14 points off turnovers alone in the same span. This margin of mistakes and missed scoring opportunities sank the Bulls into a 20-point deficit, although they were able to scrape that disparity down to 13 points by the end of the half. Matas Buzelis and Coby White especially struggled with giveaways, turning the ball over twice on the same play midway through the quarter.<\/p>\n

Josh Giddey and Ayo Dosunmu combined for 15 points off the bench in the second quarter, but the rest of the Bulls offense grinded down to a bitter halt.<\/p>\n

2. White hot streak.
\n\"ChicagoChicago Bulls guard Coby White shoots over Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes during the second half in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh)<\/p>\n

The Bulls fueled a short sprint of success \u2014 winning their last four games to dip back over .500 for the first time since November \u2014 in large part due to the volume and accuracy of their 3-point shooting. Chicago shot 46.9% from behind the arc to knock down 83 total 3s over that four-game winning streak.<\/p>\n

That shooting cooled slightly against the Lakers \u2014 going only 8-for-27 in the second half \u2014 but the Bulls still managed to land 18 3-pointers off 36.7% shooting.<\/p>\n

3. Load management looming.<\/p>\n

The Bulls are about to embark on a grueling final stretch of play before the All-Star break, featuring a pair of back-to-back series that will add up to four games in five days. This will be especially challenging for the backcourt due to the loss of Tre Jones.<\/p>\n

Both White and Giddey remain under minutes restrictions. White is closer to his typical playing load \u2014 logging 31 minutes against the Lakers \u2014 and expects to play in at least one set of back-to-back games. But Giddey is still coming off the bench to accommodate a 24-minute playing time restriction, a change that is not expected to lift this week.<\/p>\n

Bonus: Benny\u2019s new number.
\n\"ChicagoChicago Bulls guard Dalen Terry hugs Benny the Bull during warmups on Friday, Dec. 26, 2025, at the United Center in Chicago. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The retirement of Derrick Rose\u2019s number<\/a> ushered in another change for the Bulls \u2014 a new number for the team\u2019s mascot, Benny.<\/p>\n

Benny the Bull has worn the No. 1 jersey since he first debuted with the team in 1969. But retired jersey numbers apply to everyone, including bright red anthropomorphized steers. So on Monday, Benny unveiled the new jersey number that he will wear for the foreseeable future: No. 99.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans at the United Center always show up a little differently for LeBron James. Monday\u2019s game against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,76710,920,919,329,3824,963,150,368,6,10834],"class_list":{"0":"post-563565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-benny-the-bull","10":"tag-bulls","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-chicago-bulls","13":"tag-chicagobulls","14":"tag-coby-white","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","16":"tag-luka-doncic","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-united-center"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115965754914102504","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}