Bulls Dump Hapless Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers shouldn’t be considered an “easy win” for any team in the NBA, but for one of the winningest franchises in the NBA, the 2012-13 has been nothing short of a disaster. What appeared to be a dominating squad featuring the likes of Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, has been reduced to nothing more than a speed bump for teams who have the Lakers as an opponent.

 

On Monday night, it was the Bulls' chance to get a crack at the Lakers and see how they fared against a team that has won a total of two games since New Years Day. Yes, you read that correctly: two games. The Bulls added to the Lakers January struggles by defeating them 95-83 in front of a sell-out crowd at the United Center.

 

 

The calendar says the year is 2013, but Kirk Hinrich (22 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists) seemed to turn back the clock to 2006-07 with the way he performed against Los Angeles. He was very efficient going 9-11 from the field and turning the ball over just once. It was the best game he’s had wearing a Bulls uniform in quite some time. Joakim Noah (6 points, 13 rebounds, 6 blocks) responded well to his benching on Saturday night and he played with great energy and was very active in the game and had a season-high in blocks. Marco Belinelli (15 points) was great off the bench, as was Nate Robinson (11 points). Additionally, Jimmy Butler (10 points, 8 rebounds) was excellent in the second start of his NBA career, especially when you consider the job he did on Kobe Bryant, forcing him to shoot just 7-22 from the field in the game. The Bulls also did a great job of taking care of the ball, committing just eight turnovers in the game,

 

 

Carlos Boozer’s (14 points, 6 rebounds) five-game streak of notching a double-double came to an end on Monday night. The Lakers were also a +10 in the rebound margin (50-40).

 

 

There wasn’t really much to complain about with the Bulls against the Lakers, but if you had to pick something, perhaps individual shooting numbers is a good place to start. Rip Hamilton (13 points) was just 6-18 from the field and Taj Gibson (4 points, 1 rebound) was 2-8 as was the aforementioned Noah. Boozer didn’t shoot the ball particularly well either, going 7-17.