L.A. rallies from 19-point deficit for home victory
LOS ANGELES — Kyle Kuzma had 22 points, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 11 of his 21 in the fourth quarter and the Lakers rallied from a 19-point deficit in the second half for a 103-94 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night.
Brandon Ingram had 17 points, five rebounds and five assists as the Lakers won consecutive games for the second time this season.
Los Angeles had a miserable first half and trailed 61-42 early in the second, but put together a 38-19 run. Caldwell-Pope’s layup with 3:08 to play gave the Lakers their first lead since the first quarter.
Caldwell-Pope added backto-back three-pointers to get the L.A. crowd on its feet. After Ingram made a difficult layup with 1:16 left, Caldwell-Pope alertly kept a loose ball alive after Lonzo Ball missed a threepoint try, allowing the Lakers to seal their first win over the Bulls at Staples Center in their past three tries.
Denzel Valentine scored 17 points and Antonio Blakeney added 15 — all in the first half — for the Bulls, who dropped to 3-12 with their seventh loss in eight games.
Kris Dunn had 12 points and six assists in his second start of the season for Chicago.
Ball had eight points, 13 rebounds and four assists. After posting his second career tripledouble Sunday against Denver, the rookie guard missed seven of his first eight shots against Chicago, but provided strong play-making down the stretch.
Chicago, the NBA’s worst shooting team, hit seven threes in the first half while taking an 18-point lead over the step-slow Lakers. Blakeney was a rookie surprise, hitting a personalhigh six shots in the opening minutes while the Bulls surged well ahead.
Los Angeles committed 13 first-half turnovers, played poor defense and would have been buried without Kuzma’s scoring.
L.A. committed 13 first-half turnovers, played poor defense and would have been buried without (Kyle) Kuzma’s scoring.