Lakers Highlights: Visiting Bulls No Match For Sharpshooting D'Angelo Russell

He's really boosting his trade value this month.

Your Los Angeles Lakers returned to a .500 record tonight with a 141-132 victory over a visiting Chicago Bulls club missing two of its four highest-paid players, maximum-salaried sometime All-Star shooting guard Zach LaVine, out with a lingering ankle injury, and point guard Lonzo Ball, who has missed the last two calendar years with a series of seemingly unhelpful knee surgeries.

That may sound like a backhanded compliment, but you've got to play the guys who show up, and for about 43-and-a-half minutes, the Lakers admirably did just that.

LA at one point led by as many as 24 points in the contest's second half, but midway through the fourth quarter, some clutch scoring and distributing from a closing Bulls lineup of point guard Coby White, combo guard Ayo Dosunmu, wing Alex Caruso, All-Star forward DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic helped cut the lead to just 10 points by the two-minute mark.

But head coach Billy Donovan couldn't scheme his way to a last-second comeback, after all. An Anthony Davis jumper and some huge two-way play from reserve Lakers power forward Jarred Vanderbilt helped keep the Bulls at bay late.

Ultimately, sloppy ball handling from Chicago (16 turnovers) and an absolute shooting clinic from Los Angeles (.609/.645/.750 shooting splits) were the two main determining factors in the evening's contest.

LA point guard D'Angelo Russell continued his impressive January tear with some trippy circus shot triples, often in traffic.

The 6'3" OSU product, 27, scored a team-high 29 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the floor (8-of-13 from deep) and 1-of-2 shooting from the charity stripe, dished out four rebounds, swiped one steal and blocked a shot.

His output of late has been bonkers, and might just be enough to make him an appetizing draft candidate to whom LA won't need to attach some kind of future draft equity:

D'Angelo Russell over the last 7 games:

39 PTS - 8 AST - 3 REB - 57% FG
14 PTS - 6 AST - 2 REB - 41% FG
29 PTS - 3 AST - 4 REB - 55% FG
20 PTS - 7 AST - 1 REB - 50% FG
34 PTS - 8 AST - 1 REB - 66% FG
27 PTS - 10 AST - 5 REB - 43% FG
29 PTS - 4 AST - 55% FG - 8/13 3PM pic.twitter.com/nxmglLXdp1

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) January 26, 2024

Check out the full highlight reel of a night worth anointing:

D'Angelo Russell went off for 29 PTS (8 3PM) in the Lakers' win over the Bulls! pic.twitter.com/8lM1Aitnbh

— NBA (@NBA) January 26, 2024

Seven Lakers scored in double digits on the night, while four notched 20 or more points. LeBron James (25 points, 12 assists) and Anthony Davis (22 points, 11 rebounds) both recorded double-doubles, while Austin Reaves notched 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field.

We got a rare LeBron defense sighting when he picked off perhaps Chicago's sloppiest turnover of the night, this Coby White gaffe, which mutated into a (bungled) fastbreak try, cleaned up by a Davis putback:

AD putback saves the fastbreak! pic.twitter.com/gC7rhreAGC

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) January 26, 2024

The Bulls numbered among the rare teams to out-rebound the jumbo-sized Lakers, 39-30, in a loss, although LA outflanked Chicago in most other metrics.

Amidst ever-growing chatter of a possible trade, Russell has been playing some of his best basketball as a Laker, finding solid ways to impact the game beyond being his team's top three-point shooter (he's making 42.2% of his six triple tries a night).

DLo doing everything tonight 🥶 pic.twitter.com/gMURHpIvAm

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) January 26, 2024

Four Bulls have been frequently floated as potential Lakers trade pieces this year. Among the three healthy Chicago players, Compton's own DeMar DeRozan proved the toughest cover, willing his way to his spots for signature midrange makes and drawing contact for foul shots late.

While playing every second of the fourth quarter, the USC product scored 14 of his 32 points on 4-of-4 field goal shooting and 6-of-7 free throw shooting, while passing for four of his 10 dimes.

Alex Caruso scored 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor (3-of-9 from long range), dished out six assists, grabbed four rebounds, logged two blocks, and swiped a pair of steals. Chicago's other ex-Laker to whom LA has been linked, backup center Andre Drummond, scored 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting and grabbed nine boards in just 16:51.