Alright, welcome to a Christmas special full recap of the Lakers’ Christmas Day matchup with the Chicago Bulls as the Lakers, kept it close for the most part, but they started gassing out while the Bulls started turning it on as Pau Gasol stuck it to his former team to lead the Bulls to a 93-113 victory in Chicago.
First off as usual, Laker Nation, Raider Nation, Merry Christmas! I hope you guys are enjoying a wonderful time with your families, near or far in the greatest time of the year and I hoped you guys enjoyed kicking it back and watching a set of good NBA games. As for this game though, it’s been a tough sled for us Laker fans in Christmas games. After this game, the Lakers have officially lost 4 of their last 5 games on Christmas Day. It’s just tough luck, but they ran into a very tough team in the Eastern Conference. A healthy Derrick Rose, the size of Gasol and Noah, and the Bulls’ stalwart defense was just too much for the Kobe Bryant-less Lakers. Especially, Gasol, I'm sure he was motivated to battle his former team and delivered a performance we miss so much from him when he donned the purple and gold as he racked up a double-double of 23 points and 13 rebounds. Let's get right to the game.
The Positives
Ed Davis, 13 points. 14 rebounds, 3 blocks. Ed Davis did a surprisingly masterful job against Joakim Noah down low in the post defensively. If Noah got going with the way Gasol played, the Bulls’ margin of victory would’ve been much larger. The pick and roll game with Davis was still there, he managed to get some looks in the paint. Despite the large rebounding disparity between Davis now and Noah and Gasol, Davis managed to hold offensively and defensively it boxing out and giving the Lakers possession or 2nd chance opportunity. Keep in mind, he outrebounded both of them 9-7 in the 1st half of the game alone.
Wesley Johnson, 19 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals. The top scorer for the Lakers, Wes’s shooting efficiency still needs a lot of work. However, he provided with much needed buckets for the Lakers to keep it close, despite the Bulls pulling it out all the way once the 4th quarter was under way.
Carlos Boozer, 14 points, 7-11 shooting. The return to Chicago, Boozer didn’t quite have an impactful game that he needed to ensure the Bulls missed his presence on the team, but Nick Young was put on ice this game, Lin didn’t have an efficient, who’s going to be the one to step it up? Boozer answered that bell and provided the scoring off the bench and needed shots for the Lakers to be within striking distance for the most part of the game. Not sure if Bulls fans were chanting “boo” or “Booze” when he was making some of his baskets, but more likely “boos” because I know Bulls fans didn’t like his production considering he would go on a slump in games.
The Negatives
Nick Young, 3 points, 1-6 shooting. He was bound to have some of these games and not live up to his “Swaggy P” nickname. Like I said before, the Bulls defense put him on ice for the majority of the game and it benefitted big time. After his first field goal, Nick Young never heard a splash from his shot ever again. The Bulls game planned for Kobe Bryant, but they took that gameplan and picked on poor little Nick Young.
Jordan Hill’s jump shot. After the Clippers game back in October where Jordan Hill can from outside of the key, I was thinking “man he improved a lot on that shot.” Then after that, it started slipping away from him. Chris Webber said it best tonight. Hill should come back in the summer and hit 500 jump shots a day or something like that. Credit to the Bulls size, Hill was wise enough not to revert to his game in the post and try beating him with his jump shot, but it didn’t happen. He had a nice highlight where he got blocked by Noah and he got it again and manage to sink it in his face. Overall, Hill had a decent game, just that his jump shot wasn’t so great.
Conclusion
When everybody said the Lakers were better without Kobe, I was like “slow down, this team tends to regress the next game after beating a good team like the Warriors the previous game.” It wasn’t that type of regression this game. Sure they started slow, but they took baby steps to get right back into this, but too many baby steps will surely leave someone far behind and the Lakers took too many baby steps this game. The Bulls exploited that and at the end, they showed why they pose the biggest threat to teams like Toronto and Washington. Anyway, the Lakers can’t hang their heads down over this. They have a back-to-back game tomorrow facing off against the new look Mavericks since they made the trade to get Rajon Rondo. Well, this is the last Q-by-Q, Halftime, and Full Recap posts for Lakers basketball for the year. I’ll see you guys in January. I’m going to wrap up everything for this year after the Raiders-Broncos game, so stay tuned for that. Anyway, Merry Christmas guys and I’ll see you guys later.
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