For the second straight night, a Los Angeles Lakers game went all the way down to the final buzzer. This time around though, the Lakers were not quite so lucky.
The Lakers lost at the horn on Thursday night to the Bulls in Chicago by the final score of 119-117. After leading by as many as 18 points in the fourth quarter, the Lakers completely collapsed at the end of the game.
Chicago used a late 18-6 run to get to within one point (111-110) with 46 seconds left. After Lakers guard Austin Reaves then scored a field goal and made another two free throws following a miss on the other end by the Bulls, it looked like the Lakers were going to survive.
But the Lakers managed to blow the 115-110 lead with just 12 seconds left. Patrick Williams hit a three-pointer for Chicago and then LeBron James threw away the ball to Josh Giddey, who found his Bulls teammate Coby White for another three to give Chicago a 116-115 lead. Following a Lakers timeout, Reaves got all the way to the rim for the go-ahead score, and once again it looked like the Lakers were going to survive (especially since the Bulls had no timeouts left).
But Giddey received the ensuing inbounds pass and heaved a prayer from midcourt as time expired … hitting nothing but net.
Take a look at the video of the crazy final sequence.
Here is the video of just Giddey’s halfcourt heave.
Giddey, who finished with a monstrous 25-14-11 triple-double on Thursday, also played a starring role in Chicago’s emphatic 146-115 win over the Lakers on Saturday, this time in Los Angeles. During that game, Giddey went for another triple-double (15-10-17) and racked up a career-high eight steals as well.
The Lakers were on the second end of a back-to-back, having played on Wednesday night against the Pacers in Indiana. They won that game 120-119 on a buzzer-beating tip-in by James (who celebrated afterwards by trolling Stephen A. Smith online). But the Lakers’ luck ran out on Thursday against the Bulls, all thanks to one Joshua James Giddey.
