FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

“It sucks,” Reaves said. “We probably had a high-percentage chance of winning after my layup went in. There’s not many half-court buzzer-beaters to lose a game. And it’s just, it’s frustrating.”

Chicago shot 11 of 14 from 3 and 15 of 19 overall in the final quarter. Redick noted there were several instances the Bulls pulled up in 3-on-1 and 3-on-2 situations and made 3s.

“I mean, 11 of 14 in an empty gym is really good,” Redick said. “So that’s unreal shooting.”

The loss dropped the Lakers to 44-29 — a squandered opportunity to make up ground in the Western Conference standings, considering the Memphis Grizzlies (44-29) had lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder earlier in the evening.

The Lakers have lost eight of 12 games and are just 1-3 since James and Rui Hachimura returned from their respective injuries last week (Hachimura did not play Thursday). Los Angeles is trending in the wrong direction, with the worst record over the past 10 games of the top eight teams in the West.

The Lakers close their four-game road trip in Memphis on Saturday, a potential preview of a first-round playoff series, before returning to Los Angeles for a three-game homestand and the final two weeks of the regular season.

This isn’t the first time this season the Lakers lost on a game-winning shot. Redick, who is big on reference points from earlier in the season, noted that the Lakers lost to the Orlando Magic on Nov. 21 and to the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 6. After the Magic loss, the Lakers briefly spiraled, losing six of their next eight games, with four of those coming by 25-plus points. However, following the Atlanta loss, Los Angeles won eight of the next 11.

Only nine games remain for the Lakers, and the tight West playoff race will likely come down to the final day of the regular season. They are running out of time to reconnect and reestablish their level of defense from several weeks ago.

They have 48 hours to regroup, assess where things went wrong against the Bulls and make sure it doesn’t happen again against the Grizzlies.

“There’s another game in two days, less than two days, that’s how you do it,” James said. “That’s the NBA. You can’t go into a game on Saturday thinking about what happened on Thursday.”

When a team is knocking down 3 after 3, perhaps you might make them go to the hoop?? Come on JJ!