JJ Redick wasn’t talking just to hear his own voice.
He had legitimate concerns in the rematch against the Bulls less than a week after watching his Lakers get 146 dropped on them in Los Angeles.
“They’re relentless,” the Lakers coach insisted.
Hours later he found out just how relentless they were.
In one of the more improbable come-from-behind wins of the season, the Bulls (33-40) watched Josh Giddey hit a half-court three-pointer as the horn was sounding, beating the visiting team 119-117 at the United Center.
WILD ending in Bulls/Lakers
Bulls down 115-110 with 10.1 seconds to go
— Patrick Williams 3, Bulls down 115-113
— Giddey steal on inbounds pass
— Coby White 3, Bulls go up 116-115
— Austin Reaves Layup with 3.1 seconds, Lakers up 117-115
— Giddey game winner from half court pic.twitter.com/IxYxxwsmhx— Will Gottlieb (@Will_Gottlieb) March 28, 2025
Who said Luka and LeBron were the only stars in the building.
“Let it fly with confidence,” Giddey said of his heroics. “A walk-off like that from halfcourt, I’ve never done it before. I may never do that again. It could have been easy for us to throw the towel in, but we were resilient and kept coming back.”
That they did, scoring 44 points in that final stanza to make the comeback complete. But it was the last nine points for the Bulls that carried the night.
First it was Kevin Huerter hitting a clutch three with 46 seconds left to make it a one-point deficit. The Lakers’ Austin Reaves answered with a floater and then looked to ice the game with two free throws. Down five, however, the Bulls weren’t done.
Patrick Williams hit a clutch corner three out of the timeout. A look that coach Billy Donovan drew in the timeout and was executed to perfection.
“(Nikola Vucevic) did a great job stepping back and quickly swung it,” Donovan said of the play. “We got it quickly to the corner and Patrick got a good look. And then we were able to set our defense and get the steal.”
That was the key of Williams making it. That forced the Lakers to have to inbound and allowed the Bulls to set up in the press. Giddey got his hands on the LeBron James pass, quickly found Coby White and watched the red-hot guard hit the 25-footer to put the Bulls up with six seconds left.
But again, far from over.
Rather than go to James or Luka Doncic, Reaves called his own number and drove the lane for the layup. Donovan wanted to watch the film before he called it a defensive breakdown, but either way it put the Bulls in a bad spot.
Well, a bad spot unless you’re Giddey.
Williams inbounded it, threw it to Giddey quickly and watched him nail the miracle, with Giddey holding his follow-through up in the air like he knew it was good the entire time.
“I’m going to watch this (replay) all night tonight,” he said afterward.
“It’s been great,” Donovan saif of his team’s resiliency. “I think the one thing about the group, and I think the style of play we’re trying to play, I mean they came back and scored 44 points in the fourth. We just kind of stayed with it and kept competing and competing and competing.”
A good night to do that as the Bulls tightened the final four play-in spots, creeping up in the standings on No. 8 seed Orlando and No. 7 seed Atlanta, who both lost.
Giddey finished with a triple-double once again in beating the Lakers, this time 25 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, while White stayed hot, especially late, finishing with 26 points.
“The two constants have been Coby and Josh, those two guys have played well,” Donovan said. “You want to see that continue, but I think we’ve all been around the league long enough that over 82 games, it’s hard to sustain the level both those guys [White and Giddey] are playing at, night in and night out.”
It wasn’t hard to sustain on Thursday.