Josh Giddey hits halfcourt buzzer-beater over LeBron James to cap wild finale as the Bulls stun the Lakers
quickswap exchange
Josh Giddey hit a game-winning, halfcourt buzzer-beater over LeBron James as the Chicago Bulls stunned the Los Angeles Lakers in one of the wildest endings to an NBA game you are ever likely to see.
Trailing 115-110 with 12.6 seconds remaining, Giddey’s inbound pass found Nikola Vucevic, who pushed the ball to a wide-open Patrick Williams for a corner three-pointer.
James then fluffed the Lakers inbound pass from the baseline, allowing Giddey to steal the ball and find Coby White for a second Bulls triple in quick succession to put Chicago up 116-115 with 6.1 seconds remaining.
Austin Reaves then made a driving layup to put the Lakers ahead 117-116 with 3.3 seconds left, but the game wasn’t done yet.
With no timeouts remaining, Giddey inbounded the ball to Williams from the baseline, got the pass back, took one dribble and launched a shot from beyond halfcourt.
Supporters in the stands seemed frozen in anticipation as the ball sailed through the air, and the United Center then erupted as it fell through the net. After the dramatic win, Giddey found himself being swarmed by his teammates.
“Special moment to do it with these guys, this team,” Giddey said, per ESPN. “We’ve shown over the last month to six weeks that we can beat anybody. The way we play the game, I think it wears people down.
“We get up and down. We run. We put heat on them to get back. A lot of veteran teams don’t particularly want to get back and play in transition.”
Giddey later told the Bulls broadcast that he’d “never made a game-winner before.”
The ending capped an incredible couple of games for the Lakers, who had themselves won their last game against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday with a buzzer-beating tip-in from James.
Apr 23, 2025
