Josh Giddey could feel it as soon as the ball left his fingertips. In a flash, teammates were mobbing him.
Giddey’s buzzer-beating half-court heave on Thursday capped what might be the wildest finish in the NBA this season and gave the surging Chicago Bulls a 119-117 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Special moment to do it with these guys, this team,” Giddey said.
Photo: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images
The Lakers went from winning at Indiana on a tip-in by LeBron James at the buzzer on Wednesday to losing in gut-wrenching fashion. They also took it on the chin again from Chicago after getting blown out in Los Angeles on Saturday.
“Devastation,” Lakers coach J.J. Redick said. “It’s a hell of a way to lose a basketball game.”
The Lakers led by 13 midway through the fourth quarter and appeared to be in good shape up 115-110 after Austin Reaves made two free throws with 12.6 seconds remaining, only to lose for the eighth time in 12 games. They have a day to shake it off before closing out a four-game trip at Memphis.
Photo: AFP
“We put ourselves in position to win, gave up a lot of threes in the fourth quarter, still put ourselves in position to win,” James said. “Horrible turnover by myself, miscommunication the play before that. A.R. tried to save us. Tip your hats.”
The Bulls made 11 of 14 three-pointers in the fourth quarter. They nailed three in the final 10 seconds, starting with one by Patrick Williams.
Giddey then stole a pass from James and fed Coby White for a three-pointer to put the Bulls on top with 6.1 seconds remaining.
Reaves drove for a layup to give the Lakers a 117-116 lead with 3.3 seconds left, but Chicago had just enough time to pull out the win.
Giddey inbounded to Patrick Williams, got the ball back and pulled up near the Bulls logo. He held his follow-through right until the shot fell through the net, giving the Bulls their ninth win in 11 games and setting off one wild celebration.
“We’ve shown over the last month to six weeks that we can beat anybody,” Giddey said. “The way we play the game, I think it wears people down. We get up and down. We run. We put heat on them to get back. A lot of veteran teams don’t particularly want to get back and play in transition.”
The Bulls looked like a lifeless team a month ago. They traded Zach LaVine to Sacramento prior to the deadline and seemed to be packing it in after six straight losses left them with a 22-35 record. They are 11-5 since then and they have not just been picking on weak teams. They have beaten the Lakers twice and Denver in the past three games, and also have a win over Indiana during this stretch.
Giddey and White have been at their best lately.
Giddey delivered his fifth triple-double with 25 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists. The only Bulls player with more in a season was Michael Jordan with 15 in 1988-1989.
White finished with 26 points after scoring 35 or more in a career-high three straight games, and the Bulls simply did not quit.
Coach Billy Donovan said that took hold in September last year during the players’ workouts at the team’s facility prior to the start of training camp.
“We’ve got to be in great shape to play this way,” he said. “They’ve got to push themselves. I think a lot of that stemmed before training camp started, when they all came back in September. They played most of their pickup games with a 14-second shot clock just to kind of get that mentality down. We tried to go through training camp like that. I think there’s advantages by really trying to play in a way that forces these guys to be in great shape.”
In Oklahoma City, NBA scoring leader Shai Gilgeous-Alexander netted a game-high 37 points to lead the Thunder over Memphis 125-104 for a team-record 61st season victory.
The Thunder also had 20 points from Jalen Williams, plus 18 points and 11 rebounds from Isaiah Hartenstein in stretching their winning streak to eight games and breaking the team’s single-season win mark.
“It feels good,” Canadian guard Luguentz Dort said. “It just shows how much we’re getting better throughout all the years — and we’ve got to run through the finish line.”
The Thunder have not gotten past the second round of the playoffs since 2016, but they pulled away in the last seven points to turn a tied game into a lopsided triumph.
“We started getting our groove in the fourth quarter and started moving the ball, getting some steals, and going up and down,” Dort said. “Just have to go out there and compete and give everything to make it tough for them.”
Oklahoma City improved to a league-best 61-12 and have already clinched the Western Conference title, while Eastern Conference leaders Cleveland improved to 59-14 with a 124-116 home victory over San Antonio.
Donovan Mitchell had 25 points and 14 assists, while Jarrett Allen had 29 points and 15 rebounds to spark the Cavaliers.
Jaden Hardy came off the Dallas bench to score 22 points in the Mavericks’ 101-92 triumph at Orlando, spoiling a 35-point performance by the Magic’s Paolo Banchero.
Tyler Herro scored 36 points to lead Miami’s 122-112 home victory over Atlanta, while Tyrese Haliburton scored 29 points to lead nine Indiana double-digit scorers in a 162-109 rout at Washington.
Turkey’s Alperen Sengun scored 33 points and added 10 rebounds as the Houston Rockets had seven scorers in double figures in a 121-110 triumph at Utah, while the Sacramento Kings thrashed the Portland Trail Blazers 128-107.
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