LeBron James' return from injury spoiled by Bulls' phenomenal effort in 146-115 win over Lakers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Coby White scored 36 points, Josh Giddey flirted with a quadruple-double and the Chicago Bulls wrecked LeBron James' return from injury with an impressive 146-115 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.

Luka Doncic scored 29 of his 34 points in the first half and hit eight 3-pointers, while James had 17 points after a seven-game absence.

Neither superstar could do a thing to slow the Bulls, who scorched Los Angeles' normally sturdy defense on the way to their seventh win in nine games. Chicago's 146 points were 12 more than the Lakers had allowed in any game this season.

Matas Buzelis scored 31 points for Chicago, and Giddey recorded 15 points, 17 assists, 10 rebounds and eight steals. White was dominant while hitting six 3-pointers, and eight Bulls scored at least nine points on the fifth stop of a six-game road trip.

Austin Reaves scored 25 points for LA.

Rui Hachimura made his own return from a 12-game absence with a knee injury, making the Lakers' roster largely whole — but Los Angeles then played perhaps its worst defensive game.

Bulls: One of their best performances of the season, particularly in their fifth road game in eight nights while playing without injured starter Tre Jones. Chicago is looking more like a postseason threat.

Lakers: An exhausting two weeks ended discouragingly. James missed two weeks with a strained left groin, and Los Angeles clearly needs time to get back to its pre-injury form.

Reaves and Doncic kept it close through halftime, but White scored 12 points while Chicago steadily pulled away with a 39-point third quarter.

Doncic scored at least 29 points for the ninth time in his last 11 games.

On Monday, the Bulls finish their trip in Denver and the Lakers begin a four-game trip in Orlando.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey (3) gets a pass off against Los Angeles Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt (2) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)

Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic (9) and Los Angeles Lakers forward Dorian Finney-Smith (17) battle for a rebound in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)

Chicago Bulls guard Coby White (0) drives between Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) and guard Jordan Goodwin (30) for a basket in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)

Chicago Bulls forward Zach Collins (12) battles for a rebound with Los Angeles Lakers guard Gabe Vincent (7) and center Jaxson Hayes (11) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)

Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes (11) battles for a rebound with Chicago Bulls forwards Matas Buzelis, left, and Zach Collins, third from left, in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)

Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey (3) passes the ball in front of Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes (11) and guard Luka Doncic (77) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)

Chicago Bulls forward Matas Buzelis (14) scores a basket in front of Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The attempts by President Donald Trump and top leaders of his administration to downplay a security breach that revealed military strike plans in a Signal group chat including a journalist stand in stark contrast to their reaction to Hillary Clinton's use of a home server as secretary of state.

This time, they've largely focused their ire not on sweeping potential security lapses, or punishments as a result, but on the journalist who was errantly added to the group text and reported on it: editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. Some of the text's participants who spoke out against Clinton haven't commented publicly at all about the Signal leak.

One of the chief concerns about Clinton’s email server was that it was insecure, and that sensitive information could fall into the wrong hands. But former FBI Director James Comey said in recommending that no charges be brought against Clinton that there was no evidence that her email account had been hacked by hostile actors.

Trump insisted Tuesday that no classified information was divulged in the group chat, though Goldberg wrote that messaging revealed “precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing” of strikes in Yemen. The White House’s National Security Council has said it is investigating.

For her part, Clinton's reaction to Goldberg's reporting was one of astonishment: “You have got to be kidding me,” Clinton said in an X post that spotlighted The Atlantic article and included an eyes emoji.

Here's a look at what some of the officials in the group chat, and some of those steadfastly standing by them, are saying now versus then.

Now: “The main thing was nothing happened. The attack was totally successful,” Trump said during a meeting with a group of his ambassadors at the White House on Tuesday.

He also called his national security adviser, Michael Waltz, “a very good man” and insisted “he will continue to do a very good job,” while adding, “I think it’s very unfair how they attacked Michael" and labeling Goldberg a “total sleazebag.”

Later, in an interview with Newsmax, Trump said a Waltz aide had Goldberg’s number and “this guy ended up on the call." He also added that he felt good about what occurred. "I can only go by what I’ve been told ... but I feel very comfortable, actually.”

Then: “Hillary is the one who sent and received classified information on an insecure server, putting the safety of the American people under threat,” Trump said in an October 2016 speech in Warren, Michigan.

“The rigged system refused to prosecute her for conduct that put all of us, everybody in this room, everybody in this country at risk. Hillary Clinton went to great lengths to create a private email server and to bypass government security in order to keep her emails from being read by the public and by federal officials,” he said in a November 2016 speech in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

And, during a Florida rally in July 2016, he even urged Russian hackers to help find a batch of emails said to have vanished from Clinton’s private server. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."

Now: “I think there’s a lot in the lessons for a lot of journalists in this city who have made big names for themselves making up lies about this president,” Waltz said during Tuesday’s White House meeting with Trump and the ambassadors.

He also said of Goldberg, “This journalist, Mr. President, wants the world talking about more hoaxes.”

In a subsequent interview on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Waltz said, “I take full responsibility. I built the group.” He also contradicted Trump by saying that no staffer was responsible.

Waltz further acknowledged, “embarrassing, yes” and said, “We made a mistake. We’re moving forward.”

Then: “How is it Hillary Clinton can delete 33,000 government emails on a private server, yet President Trump gets indicted for having documents he could declassify?” Waltz posted in June 2023, referencing charges against Trump for mishandling classified documents. The case was scrapped after Trump won a second term.

Now: “Nobody was texting war plans,” Hegseth told journalists traveling with him in Hawaii on Monday. He said of Goldberg, “You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes.”

Then: “Any security professional, military, government or otherwise, would be fired on the spot for this type of conduct and criminally prosecuted for being so reckless with this kind of information," Hegseth, then a regular contributor for Fox News Channel, said of Clinton's emails on the network in 2016.

That same year, Hegseth asked on Fox News, “How damaging is it to your ability to recruit or build allies with others when they are worried that our leaders may be exposing them because of their gross negligence or their recklessness in handling information?”

In another 2016 Fox News segment, Hegseth said, “If it was anyone other than Hillary Clinton, they would be in jail right now for what has been done. Because the assumption is, in the intelligence community, if you are using unclassified means, there is the potential for, and likelihood, that foreign governments are targeting those accounts and gathering intelligence from them."

Now: No public comment on the Signal group chat.

Then: “Nobody is above the law, not even Hillary Clinton – even though she thinks she is," Rubio told Fox News in January 2016.

The previous year in a Fox News interview, Rubio referred to the same emails when he said, “What they did is reckless — it’s complete recklessness and incompetence.”

Now: No public comment on the Signal leak.

Then: Miller posted in 2022: “One point that doesn’t get made enough about Hillary’s unsecured server illegally used to conduct state business (obviously created to hide the Clintons’ corrupt pay-for-play): foreign adversaries could easily hack classified ops & intel in real time from other side of the globe.”

Now: “My communications, to be clear, in a Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information," Ratcliffe said at a Tuesday congressional hearing.

Then: On Fox News in 2018, Ratcliffe suggested of officials who mishandle sensitive information: “It’s always a good thing that we see that there is investigation and prosecution of folks if they’re not handling that information appropriately.”

Now: “There’s a difference between inadvertent release versus careless and sloppy, malicious leaks of classified information,” Gabbard said at the same congressional hearing.

Then: Gabbard posted on X earlier this month, “Any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, joined at right by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, answer questions as the Senate Intelligence Committee holds its worldwide threats hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, center, is flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel, left, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, as the Senate Intelligence Committee holds its worldwide threats hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Donald Trump, right, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, Monday, March 24, 2025. (Pool via AP)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth does a television interview outside the White House, Friday, March 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

FILE - White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz listens to a question from a reporter in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, in Washington, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)

President Donald Trump attends a reception celebrating Greek Independence Day in the East Room of the White House, Monday, March 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)