Lakers News: LA Fans Don't Take Kindly To Defeat Against Bulls

Nor should they.

Your Los Angeles Lakers laid an egg during LeBron James' first game back for the club in a month, falling to the visiting Chicago Bulls 118-108 during a Sunday matinee.

Given that the 36-38 Bulls are thoroughly mediocre and LA was playing at home, fans and media pros online were understandably distraught at their team's lackluster effort in defending Crypto.com Arena. Every game matters during this pivotal point in the Lakers' season, and the loss dropped the 37-38 club to the ninth seed in the Western Conference.

ESPN Los Angeles personality Allen Sliwa vented about LA's nonexistent defense against a sharpshooting Chicago club that made 54% of its field goal takes and 45% of its triples:

Awful loss for the Lakers, no excuses. How are you not ready for this game today? Zero Defense. Lakers fall back below .500

— Allen Sliwa (@AllenSliwa) March 26, 2023

A specific element of the Lakers' defensive scheming was singled out -- a very strange Darvin Ham coverage assignment:

Darvin Ham gonna come to his post game interview and say lakers didn’t play with enough energy, had too many turnovers watch.

Never gonna take accountability for his terrible lineups and rotations.

Had 6’1 Dennis guarding Demar lmao

— Washed LakersvsHaters 🅿️ (@notlakersgm) March 26, 2023

Ex-Laker Patrick Beverley had a solid-but-unspectacular game for his hometown team, scoring 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field, while also chipping in five dimes and four boards.

Pat Bev exposed us

He was right

We’re frauds

He Wins

— 🏆LakersGuru🏆 (@GuruLakers) March 26, 2023

The Lakers struggled to control the ball, turning it over 18 times to the Bulls' nine. LeBron James and Austin Reaves each had five apiece. Anthony Irwin of Silver Screen And Roll lambasted the team even before it had hit that 18-turnover mark:

16 turnovers is unacceptable. Pretty pathetic performance all around from the Lakers today. Even worse when you consider what a win might've meant for the standings. Awful.

— Anthony F. Irwin (@AnthonyIrwinLA) March 26, 2023

Bulls fans, meanwhile, clowned LA by doubling down on Pat Bev's Instagram pregame trolling with a little bonus Photoshop composite:

Charmin Soft 💀#bulls #lakers pic.twitter.com/rUG5o2oS0m

— Die-Hard Chicago Bulls Fans (@DieHardCBfans) March 27, 2023

Tonight, Lakers fans find themselves in a strange position: they have to root for the team that just beat them, pretty easily (despite a very, very LA-friendly officiating crew that ejected Nikola Vucevic in the first half), in its next game. 

The Bulls will be playing the 39-36 Los Angeles Clippers, currently the fifth seed in the West, but just two games in front of the Lakers in the conference's bunched-up standings. Without Paul George for the rest of the regular season, the Clips could easily tumble down the West.

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