You can easily call Thursday’s Lakers vs. Bulls game the NBA version of March Madness! The LA side will replay tonight’s loss over and over again. These ones are hard to forget. They showed resilience to climb out of a 13-point pit and fired back by going up 18. Then it all melted away in a matter of 12 minutes and a half-court heave from Josh Giddey. The Bulls have now beaten one of the top teams in the West twice in just a week. But this wasn’t like the lopsided defeat the Lakers suffered a few nights ago.

LeBron James and Luka Doncic didn’t have their offensive rhythm. However, defensively, the Lakers looked compact. Shades of their high-octane system cramped the Bulls in the second and third quarters. But in the NBA, all it takes is a slight switch-off for a determined team to go on the offensive. The Bulls found that window of opportunity in the fourth quarter.

The Lakers had a 5-point lead with 10 seconds left. The Bulls started to flip the script with a 3 from Patrick Williams to bring that down to 2 points with 9.8 to go. At this point, the Lakers had to inbound the ball and get a foul from the Bulls. But the inbounds pass was stolen from James by Giddey, who found Cobey White for a 3. Six points in six seconds, and the game had started to slip away. Austin Reaves, in the next possession, did give a lifeline to reclaim the lead with 3.3 seconds left. But no one was on Giddey after he inbounded the ball, leaving him to do the final damage. After the game, James did not mince words to point out what went wrong.

“We put ourselves in a position to win…Horrible turnover by myself. Bad miscommunication the play before that. AR still hit a big bucket to try to save us, and you tip your hat if someone hits a game-winner from half court,” he said in a locker room conversation with Jovan Buha of the Athletic.

The Bulls put 44 points past the Lakers’ revamped defense during that stretch. And although it ended in a miraculous fashion, LeBron James knows that allowing such a volume of points is unacceptable. “I mean we can’t give up 40 plus. We gave up 32 in the first quarter and then we played great ball from there on. 26 in the second, 17 in the third. You give up 44, you know no matter how many points you have it’s just not good ingredients for success,” he added.

While it wasn’t as embarrassing, the same thing happened last night when the Indiana Pacers rampaged back to take the lead in the final moments of the game. LeBron James was there to tap it in at the buzzer to secure a win. But tonight, the Lakers were on the other side of things, suffering a devastating blow to lose a game they will still feel should have been won. That’s exactly why dealing with such a loss is critical. But what do the Lakers tell themselves to justify losing from such an advantageous position?

How do you move past such a loss?

The remaining games for the Lakers are all highly important showdowns. They face the Memphis Grizzlies with an opportunity to potentially better their chances of taking the third seed. Additionally, with every win, they bolster the chances of having home-court advantage, at least for the first-round series.

But the locker room isn’t taking this loss lightly. Luka Doncic sat after the game to share his thoughts and why such a game can’t be put past with ease. “I mean It’s hard if it goes like that. You know, we basically had the game in hand, and when you lose like this, it’s hard, especially on back-to-back. When I think we fall hard, it’s hard to lose like that,” Doncic admitted.

JJ Redick has made it clear. The Lakers don’t have the room to be “sorry” for themselves this late in the season. Luka Doncic, though, sees it as either being good or bad. With games so close to one another, teams have to move on because of the demands placed on each win. Focusing on planning and preparing for their clash against the Grizzlies may be the perfect antidote after such a game. The Grizzlies are sitting exactly at the same record as the Lakers (44-29) and, understandably, will go all out to secure the game.

For the Lakers, a game decided by such fine margins, players will narrow in on every small error they made throughout the game. Even one additional bucket would have seen the Lakers triumph. Imagine how many looks not just Doncic and LeBron James but even the rest of the Lakers will think they should have made?

It’s still vital to put it behind them. The bigger focus is to find some momentum going into the playoffs. Hence, while it is a challenge, the Lakers need to look ahead and find ways to get out of the slump they are currently experiencing.