L.A. (Associated Press) — A few hours after being selected to his record 20th NBA All-Star squad, LeBron James led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 141-132 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night. James finished with 25 points and 12 assists at the time of the game.
Austin Reaves contributed 20 points and eight assists, while D’Angelo Russell made eight three-pointers and scored 29 points. Anthony Davis scored 22 points and Austin Reaves scored 22 points. The Lakers triumphed for the fourth time in six games, hitting 60.9% of their shots in the process.
A season-high 112 points were scored by Los Angeles through the first three quarters of the game. They extended their lead to 24 points, which allowed them to maintain it throughout the Bulls’ 39-point fourth quarter. A season high of 141 points was scored by the Lakers, and 132 points were scored by the Bulls.
DeMar DeRozan, who was born and raised in the Los Angeles area, led six players in scoring double digits for the Bulls, who have lost the first two games of their three-game trip to the West Coast. DeRozan scored 14 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter. In addition, Coby White scored 25 points, Nikola Vucevic scored 20, and Alex Caruso, a former guard for the Lakers, scored 17 points.
The Los Angeles Lakers finished a 23-day run in which they played just one game outside of Los Angeles with this victory, bringing their overall record to 6-6. During the time that the Grammy Awards are being held at their downtown arena, they will be traveling in order to play six games over the next two weeks.
With yet another excellent performance just before the trade deadline, Russell continued to make it more difficult for the Lakers to make decisions on his future. Despite the fact that he did not score in the fourth quarter, he finished one point short of his career-high in three-pointers. Despite the fact that the point guard’s deal is highly movable, Los Angeles must determine whether it can obtain enough in return to shake up its season that is currently finishing at.500. This is especially true if Russell is able to maintain this recent streak of fantastic play.
Earlier on Thursday, James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record by becoming the first player in NBA history to be selected to the All-Star team twenty times. James will also be starting his 20th All-Star Game. During the previous season, he surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the player with the most points in the history of the league.
With a fantastic 42-point second quarter, the Lakers surged to a 73-57 lead at the halftime break. They nailed 15 of their 18 shots during their greatest shooting quarter of the season, which was also their best quarter overall.
An evaluation of Zach LaVine’s ankle injury is scheduled to take place before the game, according to Bulls coach Billy Donovan, who stated that the star guard will be sidelined for at least one more week. During the beginning of this season, the Lakers were regularly mentioned in connection with the UCLA product in trade rumors.