Los Angeles Lakers registered their sixth win of the season as they defeated hosts Chicago Bulls 118-112 at the United Center. LeBron James' third-consecutive triple-double helped Lakers assert their dominance at the top. Chicago Bulls' players made full use of the erratic play from the visitors at the start of the game taking a 19-point lead at the end of the second quarter. The gap was reduced to 13 points as the third quarter ended. As soon as the match restarted for the final quarter, Kyle Kuzma had a point to prove. He led from the front and made sure that the Lakers win.
With a solid defence from Dwight Howard and clinical shooting from Kyle Kuzma, Los Angeles Lakers turned their 'full-throttle' mode on and gained a lead of 3 points in less than four minutes in the final quarter. A 16-0 Lakers rout in the first 3 minutes and 46 seconds of the 4th quarter took the game out from Chicago Bulls' hands. Jim Boylen did not call for a timeout and that did not seem to help the Bulls.
Boylen's side buckled under pressure as he refused to field a starter in the early crucial moments of the fourth quarter, however, he had a different take on it in his post-match interview.
When asked about why he didn't take a time-out, Boylen said - "Because we got to figure out. We got to learn. We got to settle down. I want to see somebody take control and take over the thing. That's where we got to grow. I had four (timeouts), I think. I could've used one and didn't. It was on my heart. It was on my mind. Timeouts have nothing to do with a free-throw line boxout. Timeouts got nothing to do with moving it to the next guy. It doesn't have anything to do with it."
"Kuz is going to be a great piece for our team" said LeBron James on Kyle Kuzma in his post-match interview. "He showed that tonight, why. Offensively and defensively he was just so in tune and everybody else that was on the floor as well."
