The Los Angeles Lakers suffered [one of the worst home losses in franchise history](lasportshub.com/lakers-embarrassing-bulls-loss-made-even-worse-after-injury-reveal-01jq2bf4s328) on Saturday, losing 146-115 to the middling Chicago Bulls. The 146 points were tied for their most allowed in a regulation home game.
Every team has bad nights. The Lakers have had a brutal schedule lately and just got LeBron James and Rui Hachimura back. They were admittedly rusty and things are obviously not going to look as bad as they did on Saturday.
At the same time, the loss to the Bulls is a continuation of a worrying trend in recent weeks. A lot of hay has been made in the weeks following the Luka Doncic trade about how the Lakers' defense has been playing at an elite level. That has been nowhere to be seen over the last two weeks. In the eight games during that span, the Lakers rank as [the 24th-best defense in the NBA](https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/summary), per Cleaning the Glass, allowing 121.3 points per 100 possessions.
During this stretch, the Lakers had horrendous defensive ratings of 132.6 against the Milwaukee Bucks, 131.0 against the Denver Nuggets, and 141.7 against the Bulls. As a result, they are now the 13th-best defensive unit in the league for the entire season.
Perhaps this is what Lakers fans should have expected all along. A backcourt duo of Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic, combined with no viable center play outside of Jaxson Hayes, is bound to struggle defensively.
When Hayes isn't available or on the bench, the Lakers rely heavily on small-ball lineups. These groups can't protect the rim or grab defensive rebounds. Their mobility and flying around can cause problems in small spurts, but that is not a viable scheme for long stretches of the season.
Let's hope James and Hachimura's returns will remedy some of the defensive issues with the additional size and physicality they bring to the frontcourt. The Lakers have to be much better on that end of the floor if they want to stay in the top four of the Western Conference and clinch home-court advantage in the playoffs.
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