'Relentless' Bulls find a way to topple Lakers on Josh Giddey's miracle [VIDEO]
Lakers coach JJ Redick wasn’t talking just to hear his voice.
He had legitimate concerns for the rematch against the Bulls less than a week after watching his Lakers get 146 points dropped on them in Los Angeles.
“They’re relentless,” Redick insisted.
Hours later, he found out just how relentless.
In one of the more improbable come-from-behind victories of the season, the Bulls (33-40) watched Josh Giddey hit a halfcourt three-pointer as the horn was sounding to beat the Lakers 119-117 at the United Center on Thursday.
WILD ending in Bulls/Lakers
— Will Gottlieb (@Will_Gottlieb) March 28, 2025
Bulls down 115-110 with 10.1 seconds to go
— Patrick Williams 3, Bulls down 115-113
— Giddey steal on inbounds pass
— Coby White 3, Bulls go up 116-115
— Austin Reaves Layup with 3.1 seconds, Lakers up 117-115
— Giddey game winner from half court pic.twitter.com/IxYxxwsmhx
Who said Luka Doncic and LeBron James were the only stars in the building?
“Let it fly with confidence,” Giddey said of his heroics. “A walk-off like that from halfcourt, I’ve never done it before. I may never do that again. It could have been easy for us to throw the towel in, but we were resilient and kept coming back.”
They scored 44 points in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback. But it was the last nine points for the Bulls that carried the night.
First, it was Kevin Huerter hitting a clutch three with 46 seconds left to make it a one-point deficit. The Lakers’ Austin Reaves answered with a floater, then looked to ice the game with two free throws. Down by five, however, the Bulls weren’t done.
Patrick Williams hit a clutch corner three out of the timeout. It was a look that coach Billy Donovan drew up during the timeout, and it was executed to perfection.
“[Nikola Vucevic] did a great job stepping back and quickly swung it,” Donovan said. “We got it quickly to the corner, and Patrick got a good look. And then we were able to set our defense and get the steal.”
That was the key of Williams making it. That forced the Lakers to have to inbound and allowed the Bulls to set up in the press. Giddey got his hands on James’ pass, quickly found Coby White and watched the red-hot guard hit the 25-footer to put the Bulls up with six seconds left.
But, again, it was far from over.
Rather than go to James or Doncic, Reaves called his own number and drove the lane for the layup. Donovan wanted to watch the film before he called it a defensive breakdown, but, either way, it put the Bulls in a bad spot.
Well, a bad spot unless you’re Giddey.
Williams inbounded it, threw it to Giddey quickly and watched him nail the miracle, with Giddey holding his follow-through up in the air like he knew it was good the entire time.
“I’m going to watch this [replay] all night tonight,” he said afterward.
“It’s been great,” Donovan said of his team’s resiliency. “I think the one thing about the group, and I think the style of play we’re trying to play, I mean, they came back and scored 44 points in the fourth. We just kind of stayed with it and kept competing and competing and competing.”
It was a good night to do that as the Bulls tightened the final four play-in spots, creeping up in the standings on the No. 8 seed Magic and the seventh-seeded Hawks, who both lost.
Giddey finished with a triple-double again in beating the Lakers, this time with 25 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, while White stayed hot, especially late, finishing with 26 points.
“The two constants have been Coby and Josh; those two guys have played well,” Donovan said. “You want to see that continue, but I think we’ve all been around the league long enough that over 82 games, it’s hard to sustain the level [White and Giddey] are playing at, night in and night out.”