Los Angeles Lakers suffer their largest defeat of the season by far despite LeBron's return

Los Angeles Lakers momentum was halted, and not even the return of LeBron James helped alleviate the blow of a disastrous hammering on Sunday, losing to the Chicago Bulls 146-115: a 31-points margin, their largest win over the Lakers in history.

Lakers are usually characterised by a stronger defence, but Chicago dismantled it last night, conceding 146 points, conceding 12 more points than any other match this season. The match was very even in the first half, but broke down in the second half. Luka Dončić, for example, scored 29 of his 34 points in the first half and conceded 7 losses.

James, who had missed the past seven games due to a two-week injury with a strained left groin, wasn't in form and scored 17 points. Lakers season, despite a good recover since the arrival of Dončić, is still a roller coaster: they had a eight-win streak before James' injury, but now have suffered two crushing defeats in a row (they lost 118-88 to Orlando Bucks on Friday).

Lakers has fallen to the fourth place in the West Conference, with a 43-27 record, still greatly improved from the times before Dončić, while Chicago Bulls are ninth in the East conference (31/40) having won seven out of the last nine games.