Their path can’t be half-empty
Perhaps it was human nature for the Lakers to put their game into neutral starting in the third quarter and finish Saturday night in cruise control after building a 30-point halftime lead over the Chicago Bulls.
Perhaps boredom set into the Lakers in the second half after they held the Bulls to 33 points and 33.3% shooting in the first half.
What matters is that the Lakers didn’t compete as hard in the final two quarters, their focus not quite there, but still beat the Bulls 101-90. Anthony Davis had a game-high 37 points in the win.
“Yeah, we got to be better. That’s the simplest way to put it,” coach Frank Vogel said, then cited last week’s blown lead in a loss to Golden State.
The Lakers return to play Monday night in Cleveland in the third of seven games on this trip, which includes stops in Philadelphia on Wednesday and Boston on
Saturday.
“We talked about that at halftime,” Vogel said of not letting their big lead slip away. “We came out and didn’t play the third quarter the way we were supposed to and approach that half, really the whole second half, the way we were supposed to.
“So, we’ll learn from it and hopefully get better next time. Hopefully we’re going to be up again by 20 or 30 at halftime at some point and we’ll draw back on this experience knowing that we didn’t do well enough here and we got to be better in the future.”
The Lakers were outscored 57-38 in the second half in part because they turned the ball over 12 times. They had 19 turnovers in the game, six by LeBron James.
They shot just 35.1% from the field and missed all 10 of their three-point attempts after halftime as well.
Meanwhile, the Lakers’ defense went to sleep, allowing the Bulls to shoot 46.3% in the half and 53.3% (eight for 15) from three-point range.
The Lakers entered the game ranked third in the NBA in three-point shooting, making 40% of them. They then played as if they were one of the worst threepoint shooting teams, making just 21.1%. Only Davis (two for three), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (one for three) and Alex Caruso (one for two) made any of their long-range shots.
Horton-Tucker’s return to Chicago
Though his family and friends were unable to attend the game because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Talen Horton-Tucker still enjoyed his time back home in Chicago, where he attended Simeon Career Academy High.
After not playing in the previous two games, Horton-Tucker was back in the rotation, playing 21 minutes and 12 seconds. He had 10 points and two rebounds.
“I just want to come out and give the same energy that I give every game that I get in,” he said.
Horton-Tucker was in a group that helped close out the win.
When the fourth quarter started with the Lakers’ 33point lead down to 17, Vogel left James and Davis on the bench. For the rest of the game, as it turned out.
Vogel went to his bench and let Montrezl Harrell, Kyle Kuzma, Wesley Matthews, Caruso and Horton-Tucker close it out. Harrell did his part with 10 points and five rebounds.
TONIGHT AT CLEVELAND When: On the air:
5 PST.
TV: Spectrum SportsNet; Radio: 710, 1330. Update: The Cavaliers will be playing a back-to-back game, having played at Boston on Sunday. Cleveland center Andre Drummond has been doing work, leading the NBA in rebounding at 15.1 per game while also averaging 18.8 points. Guard Collin Sexton is averaging 26.8 points for the Cavaliers, who have seven players averaging in double figures.