Josh Giddey hits halfcourt buzzer-beater over LeBron James to cap wild finale as the Bulls stun the Lakers
By Matias Grez, CNN
(CNN) — Josh Giddey hit a game-winning, halfcourt buzzer-beater over LeBron James as the Chicago Bulls stunned the Los Angeles Lakers in one of the wildest endings to an NBA game you are ever likely to see.
Trailing 115-110 with 12.6 seconds remaining, Giddey’s inbound pass found Nikola Vučević, who pushed the ball to a wide-open Patrick Williams for a corner three-pointer.
James then fluffed the Lakers inbound pass from the baseline, allowing Giddey to steal the ball and find Coby White for a second Bulls triple in quick succession to put Chicago up 116-115 with 6.1 seconds remaining.
Austin Reaves then made a driving layup to put the Lakers ahead 117-116 with 3.3 seconds left, but the game wasn’t done yet.
With no timeouts remaining, Giddey inbounded the ball to Williams from the baseline, got the pass back, took one dribble and launched a shot from beyond halfcourt.
Supporters in the stands seemed frozen in anticipation as the ball sailed through the air, and the United Center then erupted as it fell through the net. After the dramatic win, Giddey found himself being swarmed by his teammates.
“Special moment to do it with these guys, this team,” Giddey said, per ESPN. “We’ve shown over the last month to six weeks that we can beat anybody. The way we play the game, I think it wears people down.
“We get up and down. We run. We put heat on them to get back. A lot of veteran teams don’t particularly want to get back and play in transition.”
Giddey later told the Bulls broadcast that he’d “never made a game-winner before.”
The ending capped an incredible couple of games for the Lakers, who had themselves won their last game against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday with a buzzer-beating tip-in from James.
“We put ourselves in position to win, gave up a lot of threes in the fourth quarter, still put ourselves in position to win,” James said.
“Horrible turnover by myself, miscommunication the play before that. AR (Reeves) tried to save us. Tip your hats.”
Lakers head coach JJ Redick said the team was feeling “devastation,” while Bulls guard Kevin Huerter called it the “craziest game of my life probably.”
Giddey finished the contest with his fifth career triple-double, recording 25 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, while White had 26 points and nine assists.
Huerter chipped in another 21 points – including five from beyond the arc – as seven Bulls players scored in double figures.
Reeves had a game-high 30 points for the Lakers, while Luka Dončić had 25 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and two steals.
The win continues the Bulls’ impressive recent resurgence. Chicago, currently ninth in the East, has now won four straight and is quickly closing in on the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks in the battle for play-in seeding.
The Lakers’ recent struggles continue, however, with the team winning just once in its last five games.
Pacers set franchise points record in crushing win over Wizards
The Indiana Pacers set a new franchise record for points scored in a game as they crushed the Washington Wizards 162-109 on Thursday.
It was also the most points given up by Washington in franchise history and the most scored by an NBA team in regulation since 2008.
The scoreline could conceivably have been even more embarrassing for the Wizards, but the Pacers stopped trying to score with more than 1:30 still remaining in the fourth and instead chose to give up shot clock violations, drawing loud boos from the Washington crowd.
Tyrese Haliburton had a game-high 29 points in just under 25 minutes as he sat out the entire fourth quarter of a rout where nine Pacers hit double figures and 14 were on the score sheet.
Rookie Alex Sarr had a team-high 22 points for the Wizards.
The blowout continues Indiana’s hot recent run of form, winning six of the last seven games with the only defeat coming last time out to James’ tip-in.
Thursday’s scores in full
Away @ home (winner in bold)
Indiana Pacers 162-109 Washington Wizards
Dallas Mavericks 101-92 Orlando Magic
San Antonio Spurs 116-124 Cleveland Cavaliers
Atlanta Hawks 112-122 Miami Heat
Memphis Grizzlies 104-125 Oklahoma City Thunder
Los Angeles Lakers 117-119 Chicago Bulls
Houston Rockets 121-110 Utah Jazz
Portland Trail Blazers 107-128 Sacramento Kings
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