Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Bulls' loss to Lakers wasn't about Luka Doncic, LeBron James

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris broke down the Bulls' 129-118 loss to the Lakers on Monday at the United Center.

Amy Harris and Grody. Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on 670 to score. Kobe's fast, almost intercepted by LeBron, but Bezellis recovers. He threw it away. La Ravia on the runway. And LeBron changed with his third dump on the ballgame. Got it, count it, foul. Hayes with a handoff to Luca, lets it fly, left side three, and a splash as he stares down the bull's bench to his left.

and Luca with 42. That was Chuck Swerski and Bill Weddington on the call on the Bulls Radio Network. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 670 to score. Lake Show came to town and dropped 129 points on the Bulls. Lakers beat the Bulls 129 to 118. The league's leading scorer, Luca Donchich, had himself a night. 46 total points for Luca. It's absurd to say.

In 38 minutes, 46 points. He was 15 of 25 shooting, 8 of 14 from 3, 8 of 12 at the line, which was the real deal here. To go with 12 assists. LeBron, I don't think it's his last game at the UC, but he played like a man who was inspired, especially the first half. 24 points for LeBron, three dunks, he even made a three. Five rebounds, three assists. Oh yeah, Luca had seven rebounds because he's out of this world. And all of that, despite all of that, you tell me that that. You tell me that that that's, not the reason. The Lakers won this game. I think you're right when you say LeBron played inspired.

Luca also, but let's take a look at why, before I even tell you why. This team last year got beat twice by the Bulls. And we all remember what happened when Josh Giddy hit the full court, or excuse me, the half-court shot. I was there. You were there. Also, Josh Giddy stole, like outright picked a ball out of LeBron's hands to help them stay in that game. You think LeBron remembers that? But you know what they also remember?

That game wasn't even a week removed from their first meeting with the Lakers in L.A. Do you remember what happened in that game? They did beat them. They didn't beat them. They beat them down. Didn't they score like 140 some odd points in that game? 146 to 115. Yikes.

I forgot about that. So that's what I'm saying. And that was with Luca, wasn't it? Wasn't that with Luca? Both those games were with Luca and LeBron. So my point is they may have had this date circled on their calendar. Oh, yeah, we got to get our... Sorry, Mark Grady's not here.

Get back. And get back, they did. And so... Lucas scored 20 in the third quarter. So despite saying all of that, and they came out and LeBron was dunking early, Bulls, though, kind of tried to get their composure back. They were only down four after the first quarter. Now, in the second quarter, because they turned the ball over ten times.

And it was a true team effort, Leila. Seven different players had at least one turnover in the... second quarter. Seven different players. So it wasn't like one guy was doing it. I thought Kobe looked the most kind of uneasy in that he was trying to force things. He was trying to answer the bell, if you will. But you didn't need to do that.

Not that thought at halftime, they were able to kind of settle down. And they come back and they get all the way within one point in the third quarter. And then the turnovers rear their ugly head again. Yeah. And that's when Luca had 20 points in the third quarter and kind of gets them some space. and they get to about seven, eight, nine points, and they couldn't really make a charge after that. But the damage was done in that second quarter.

And remember, Luca and LeBron come out inspired because they got their asses beat last year. That they did. You know? Like, you can chalk up to Josh Giddy as like a miracle half-court shot, but they choked away that game because it wasn't just that shot. It was like three possessions before that where they turned the ball over and they looked.

The steel, yeah. Yeah, there were some bad turnovers and bad passes by the Lakers to get back in that game. and then lose it. But in the game in L.A. In which both LeBron and Luca were out there, although the minutes were limited because they were getting tow up from the flow-up.

The Bulls beat them down, and this was the Lakers' call for retribution in this game. And the reason they won the game, back to the point, it wasn't LeBron and Luca that salted this away. It's because for the first time in a while, the best player off either bench was not in a Bulls uniform. The depth is the key to the Bulls' winning. and beating teams who have real stars, all stars, if you will, with future Hall of Famers and

Luca and LeBron, Rui Hachamira comes off the bench to nail nine of 11 shots, including four threes, and the inability to guard him effectively is what was the difference in this game. Oh, yeah, Rudy shot, Ruiz shot lights out, man, 9 of 11 shooting. I mean, that's it. You know, four or five. Remember the behind the bag pass from Luca? All of it. Yeah, Luca was. Because meanwhile, Luca was thrown up heat checks, like the half-court heaves. I think there's a couple of truce in this game that kind of exist in the NBA. Number one is there are certain teams you just do not try to run with Golden State being example, number one.

You know, peak Golden State, that's what would happen. You know, Peak Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, and the crew would come in. Everybody thought they could run with them. They couldn't. And the Bulls have actually used that to their advantage now. this is a team who runs. But I feel like in the spirit of shoot or shoot, maybe we saw a little bit of that happening with Kobe.

He's trying to make some things occur that weren't exactly falling his way. You know, he's still getting back to his form. He still ended up with 23 points in the game. But the bench contributions outside of Io were paltry for the Bulls. You know, Giddy comes in off the bench. He gets 19. Patrick Williams got seven. Iyo had 20.

But outside of that, you know, it's Dail and Terry. Lockland Ulbric had some a minute at the end, you know, Javon Carter admitted at the end, but Kevin Herder didn't end up with any points. And he was the game winner in the previous outing. So his 0 for 5 from 3, I thought, was the biggest difference maker in this game. If you look at the plus minus in this game,

LeBron is a minus 14 in this game. LeBron. LeBron is a minus 14 in this game. And that gives you an indication of how it can be very inconsistent. Yes. And so his minus 14 helps you to understand that even though LeBron and Luca were doing what they wanted to a certain degree. Now, LeBron only had four points after halftime.

But Luca, obviously, as you said, he carried them in the second half, along with Rui Hachemiro. The Bulls had opportunities in this game to win this game. They even had an opportunity once they got back within one point because Kobe got hot in the third quarter. But understand this. They can't have the types of quarters that they had in the second quarter where you get down by 20, not because you're having an off shooting night, because you're just freely giving the other team more possessions via the turnover. And that's it.

If you're talking about one of the most offensive, efficient teams in the Lakers and you're giving them extra possessions, what's going to happen there? And even if they don't make a shot, they're getting to the line because that's what happened with Luca. That's not even something we talk about with the Bulls is how much they need to get to the line. So Luca does that on his own, and he's able to make that happen for his team. That's what makes us hard.

The turnovers essentially beat you twice. And the Lakers, they had six turnovers total. LeBron had two. Jared Vanderbilt had one. And then Luke up because he has the ball so many times at three. So the final score, Bulls lose by 11, right? The difference in points off turnovers? 11.

Yeah, 23 points off 15 turnovers. That's what the Lakers were able to cash in off the 15 Bulls turnovers. And then the eight turnovers by the Lakers, only 12 points for the Bulls. And, you know, getting to the line is definitely a factor in this. Luca gets the line 12 teams. The Bulls is a team gets the line 18 teams knocking down 14 free turns. That's it. Like, offensive efficiency is as much about getting to the stripe as anything else.

But I don't want people who maybe haven't checked in with the Bulls or watched a bunch of the games to feel like, oh, this is another example of the Bulls not having a start. That's not why they lost this game. They lost this game because they let Rui Hachemiro get loose off the bench. I think 46 out of Luke is pretty stout. Go back to last year, though. What I'm saying is they can beat these types of teams. But again, the Lakers, I feel like were properly more motivated than maybe most teams of the Bulls

face all year long over the course of a regular season. I do want to say I do not think that this was LeBron's last time at the United Center. Tell me why. It didn't feel that way. Like, I think there would be a little bit more pomp in circumstance. Like, think about, I was there for Kobe's last game at the United Center. But we knew at the beginning of the season it was going to be Kobe's last run. Well, I was going to say, like, that was a whole tour.

And Kobe had a special relationship with the UC. And I think a lot of the best still do. You know, and LeBron, for example, had that. Like, he comes into the building. The Lakers fans at the United Center, too, will come in. It's an event game for them. You know, this isn't a cursory thing that happens. they only play twice a year usually.

So because of that, I think that there's, usually you'll see a little bit more. Like maybe there's a lingering on the court. Maybe there's a little bit more in warm-ups. And I think in this case, it was more of what you talked about. Usually, I feel like the United Center is an indicator. Like, if this were his last season, I think you would see a little bit different rather than, let's get to work, let's win this game type of body language. Two things.

One, I don't think he's made a decision on whether he's coming back or not. I think I don't necessarily know that he'll have a, farewell tour. Do you think he'll definitely have a farewell tour? Are you kidding? He has a patch on for no reason. His own patch. Right. That he created. That he gets to wear. That's crazy. So no, I think especially given his life with the Bulls, you know, being with the Cavaliers, we just talked about Derek Rose's jersey retirement. There is an arc there and a relationship there with the Chicago Bulls. And even when they're not as good, other teams still

play them with meaning. So that to me is what I thought about when I was watching. this game. I'm just not so sure he's going to have this farewell year where, hey, this is my last season, guys. I could see it coming to a more abrupt stop than that. I don't know. Not necessarily with him. I think that's a major changing of a regard that happens in the NBA. The league might not want to see that. They might want to see something done a little bit differently. Because imagine what that would do for the ratings as well, which are up, as I understand. They are up, despite a whole bunch of streaming going on. Nobody watches or cares about the The NBA.

The Jeannie Buss might not agree with your assessment about that. I mean, he may have to finish elsewhere is what I'm saying. There's that part of it. Yeah, the marriage of LeBron and the Lakers is something that's a whole other segment. Coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison Brody, we have a shorter show today because of what we are doing at 12 o'clock. That is time for our Terry Boers celebration of his life. So five on it, which is normally at noon, is next.