The Los Angeles Lakers were fully healthy on Saturday night with Rui Hachimura and, more notably, LeBron James returning to action, but the Chicago Bulls spoiled the party with a 146-115 blowout that dropped the Lakers to the No. 3 to No. 4 seed with 12 games remaining.
The Lakers are tied in the loss column with the Nuggets, and are likely going to win the tiebreaker over Denver (2-2 head to head) by virtue of being a division winner (they are three games up on Golden State with the tiebreaker secured for the Pacific crown).
Hachimura (knee) hadn’t played in almost a month, while James missed six games with a groin strain. The Lakers went 3-3 in those games without LeBron as the defense struggled, and that was the story again on Saturday as Chicago put up points like an All-Star game.
James was rusty in his return, finishing with 17 points on 16 shots with five turnovers. He missed three of his five free throws and was a game-low minus-27 in in 31 minutes.
The good news for the Lakers is Luka Doncic continues to surge toward what feels like it could be a monster postseason for him. Dončić took a while to get settled with the Lakers, but he’s been in full form for a bit and stormed out of the gates for 17 first-quarter points on Saturday. That makes for 38 points over Luka’s last two first quarters after he put 21 on the Nuggets on Wednesday.
Dončić has always been a first-quarter sniper, and he really had it rolling on Saturday when he wound up with 29 points and seven 3-pointers in the first half.
Dončić finished with 34 points against Chicago. He has 31 against Denver and went for 45 against Milwaukee a little more than a week ago. Over his last 10 games, Dončić is averaging 31.1 points while making 43% of his 3-pointers on 11 attempts a night.
It’s not just the numbers. Luka is clearly starting to feel himself in a Lakers uniform. LeBron has pretty much handed the QB1 reigns to Dončić and even though this loss to the Bulls is frustrating, the bigger picture still looks bright with Dončić playing this way heading into the postseason.