– Bench provides a spark
While Kuzma was certainly a big part of the bench production, he had some help in this game. In the first half when the Bulls took the lead, Coby White and the Bulls bench really helped them build the lead. White finished with a nice game for the Bulls, as he totaled 18 points, but a majority of those points came in the first half.
In the second half, the Lakers’ bench really got going. In addition to Kuzma scoring well, the Lakers saw Quinn Cook, Dwight Howard, and Alex Caruso all play well once again. Cook was the second-leading scorer on the Lakers tonight, as he finished with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc. Cook being the second-leading scorer for the Lakers is something that we likely won’t see a lot this season, but it was certainly welcomed against the Bulls.
Once again for the Lakers, Dwight Howard played very well. Howard finished with just six points and six rebounds in 24 minutes, but he had some timely rebounds and played some strong defense in the paint. After the Bulls were beating the Lakers up in the paint in the first half, Howard was part of the reason why that wasn’t the case in the second half.
Like Howard, Alex Caruso’s stats didn’t jump off the page, but good things keep happening when he’s on the court.