The Los Angeles Lakers played the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night to start a tough three-game road trip.

With Gabe Vincent back from his knee injury, it was the first time all season that the Lakers were at full speed. But it didn’t matter—they still lost 124–108.

Zach LaVine has been hurt for a while now, but point guard Coby White has stepped up his game in recent weeks. He started this game by making a long bank shot, which set off the scoring before LeBron James made a layup for the Lakers.

James was on fire early on. He slammed home a dunk and then made a three-pointer that put the Lakers ahead 9-4 and made the Bulls call a timeout.

After the break, though, Chicago came back strong. White and Alex Caruso both made three-pointers and two-pointers to start a 10-0 run that was stopped by Anthony Davis.

The Lakers, on the other hand, stayed cold while the Bulls were on fire, which gave Chicago its first major lead.

Vincent checked in for the first time with three minutes left in the first quarter. He responded right away with an assist that made a difference. Things did not go well for the Lakers in other ways, though. They were behind 33–22 at the start of the second.

At the start of the second, the Bulls didn’t slow down. Javon Carter made back-to-back threes to make the score 15–11.

The Lakers finally got going again when James went on a 13-0 run that included threes from Cam Reddish and Prince. But the Lakers still had a lot of work to do.

Because the Bulls kept leaving Prince open at the 3-point line, he made them pay again by giving the Lakers much-needed offence.

After falling behind by two points, L.A. came back strong to end the quarter with a 61-55 lead going into the half.

In the third quarter, Davis and James scored back-to-back and-ones to make it 86–86. The progress stopped dead when Davis rolled his ankle and had to leave the game. This gave the Bulls a chance to regain the lead.

The Lakers made some stupid mistakes, but Rui Hachimura made a big three-pointer at the last second to keep them within 12 points, 90–78, going into the fourth.

Davis was able to come back at the start of the fourth quarter, but he still looked like he was having trouble because of his ankle. James and Reaves were scoring to keep the game from getting out of hand, but the Bulls kept making a lot of three-pointers.

As has happened many times before, DeRozan destroyed his local team with a variety of midrange shots, and the Bulls’ supporting players also made shots from deep.

The Lakers tried to get back in the game, but they just couldn’t get enough stops. They lost again, which was frustrating.