“Once I knew I could do that, I felt confident I could play.” Related Articles “It’s mostly the takeoff and the landing, exploding, things of that nature,” he said.

Doctors have told him that he’s recovering faster than anyone they’ve seen with a torn foot tendon, and while James wasn’t always explosive on Sunday, he wound down his pregame warmup with a few dunks that told him he would be good to play. James said he eschewed the recommendation of two doctors to get surgery on his foot, going instead to “the LeBron James of feet,” as he put it. In the larger picture, James is hoping that his earlier return will mean he’ll find his rhythm faster than he would have if he had missed more games. Compton native DeMar DeRozan (USC) had 17 points. Lavine, a UCLA product, finished with a game-high 32 points. But Beverley got the last laugh, hitting a turnaround hook over James and gesturing “too small” on the court and howling to himself. There was a small flicker of hope with 1:30 remaining after Beasley hit his fifth 3-pointer and brought the deficit within eight points. was the team’s best offensive weapon early, finishing with 18 points, while Malik Beasley (18 points) heated up late when the Lakers tried eating into Chicago’s 21-point lead. But the Lakers’ shooters couldn’t punish them, either: The team was just 13 for 36 from behind the arc.

The Bulls – who have had the NBA’s best defense since the All-Star break – hammered him with double-teams.

The Lakers also coughed up 18 turnovers, twice as many as Chicago, and surrendered 34 points on those giveaways.Īnthony Davis labored again for offensive touches, scoring 15 points on just eight shot attempts. “I thought they were great defensively on that side.” “We weren’t aggressive enough, physical enough,” Coach Darvin Ham said. But they couldn’t stay in front of Zach LaVine’s weaving drives or keep a lid on Chicago’s bench shooters, and they were bothered in the paint and on the glass by the Bulls’ physicality. The Lakers have boasted the league’s third-best defensive rating since the All-Star break (110.4), which helped them go 8-5 without James. It ended a three-game win streak and wasn’t especially encouraging given that the Lakers have to turn around and play the Bulls again Wednesday night in Chicago.īut ultimately, a lack of defensive intensity – the very thing that has driven the team’s turnaround after the early February trade deadline, was the key factor more than any individual player. “That definitely changed my mindset on me coming back and trying to be a part of this.”Įven with James making a stunning return to the fold, the Lakers got checked in a loss that dropped them down to ninth place in the Western Conference. “To hell with the play-in – we actually can be a top-eight seed,” he said. Part of his rush was seeing his team go 8-5 without him, putting the Lakers in position to be in the postseason.

But he would have traded the pomp of his comeback for a victory to celebrate as well. James was happy to be back on the court after a four-week recovery that defied some of the medical expertise he sought when he tore a tendon in his right foot. But on Sunday afternoon, the franchise star’s return could not cure all that ails the Lakers (37-38), who were outplayed nearly start to finish in a 118-108 loss to the Chicago Bulls (36-38). The Lakers have been hot over the last month and a half, and James’ arrival after a 13-game layoff due to injury seemed like it might ramp up that momentum even more. Then as he tossed it into the air, a roar rose with it. Roughly 5½ minutes into the game, the 38-year-old stepped to the scorer’s table, and the home crowd’s volume began to rise as he shook the chalk dust into his hands. LOS ANGELES - Coming off the bench for just the second time in his career, LeBron James still made his check-in a spectacle.

Bulls lakers score