The Los Angeles Lakers dropped their second consecutive game on Saturday night with a 146-115 loss to the Chicago Bulls despite Luka Doncic having another big performance.
The five-time All-Star scored a team-high 34 points on 10-of-18 shooting, including 29 in the first half. He also went an efficient 8-of-13 from behind the arc but did have seven turnovers as well.
Doncic put on a show for the sold-out crowd at Crypto.com Arena, which included French soccer legend Thierry Henry.
Doncic and Jaxson Hayes swapped their Lakers jerseys with Henry before the game, receiving autographed Arsenal jerseys in return.
Henry is in Los Angeles for the Concacaf Nations League semifinals and made sure to catch a Lakers game like many other athletes and celebrities who visit the city.
Henry spent most of his playing career with Arsenal but also had stops with Monaco and Barcelona, among other clubs. He retired at the end of 2014 and has since transitioned into coaching and announcing.
Although the Lakers couldn’t pull out the win for Henry, he still had a good time at the game and got to watch some of the biggest basketball stars in the world.
Luka Doncic believes Lakers are in ‘great spot’ despite rough loss to Bulls
Despite the 31-point loss to the Bulls, Luka Doncic feels the Lakers are in a good spot heading into the final stretch of the regular season now that LeBron James and Rui Hachimura have returned to action.
“I think we’re in a great spot. Obviously, today wasn’t a good game for us,” Doncic admitted. “But I think we are in a great spot, and we have to battle every game to not get in the Play-In [Tournament] and try to get the highest seed we can.”
Doncic also acknowledged that the first game back for injured players and teams usually isn’t pretty.
“I think it was more just basketball. It’s always great to have people back, but that first game is always tough, I could tell. And they made a lot of shots,” Doncic said.
With a tough road trip on the horizon, Doncic wants the Lakers to learn from this loss, but not think about it too much.
“I mean, the plan, or I don’t know how to say, is to go out there next game and do what we can do,” he said. Not forget about this game but learn from it. But at the game of the game, if you lose by one or you lose by 40, it’s a lot. So it doesn’t really matter how much you lose by. We can’t afford for this game to push us back. We just gotta move forward from it.”
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