On December 20, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, the Lakers challenged the Bulls away, both teams were in the remnants of the game, the Lakers fell into passivity in the first quarter, trailing by 6 points, James only scored 2 points in 6 shots.
The Lakers' last fiasco to the Timberwolves ended their winning streak, ranking 6th in the West with a 16-14 record, the team recently lacked major generals, multiple players triggered health and safety agreements and could not play, and head coach Vogel could not command. The Bulls have performed well this season, finishing Second in the East with 17 wins and 10 losses, but have also been affected by personnel irregularities recently, having suffered two consecutive defeats.
The Lakers' starting lineups are: Westbrook, Thomas, Ellington, James, Jordan Jr. The Bulls started: Ball, DeRozan, Caruso, Green, Vucevic. At the beginning of the first quarter, Wei Shao assisted Jordan Jr. to dunk the score, Vucevic shot for the Bulls to score first, and the opening attacks of both teams were not good, and they missed consecutive shots. The Bulls' DeRozan erupted, scoring six points in a row and the Bulls leading 12-6 to stop the Lakers.
Back from the timeout, Westbrook broke through to score, Thomas Jr. also shot a three-pointer, the Lakers chased only 1 point, Ball scored 5 consecutive points to stabilize the situation, the two teams scored alternately, Jordan Jr. scored on a layup, and the Lakers fell behind 15-20. After the timeout, the Bulls quickly widened the point difference, bradley scored a layup, and the Bulls led 24-15.
Ball gradually found the feel, the Lakers relied on Ah Anthony to score, the first quarter of the Lakers 22-28 behind. James scored 2 points on 1-of-6 in the first quarter, Jordan Jr. had 6 points and 5 rebounds, Anthony had 5 points, and Westbrook had 4 points and 3 assists. On the Bulls side, DeRozan scored 6 points, Vucevic scored 5 points, and Ball was not soft on the old owner, scoring 9 points and 3 assists in a single quarter.