Giddey's halfcourt shot gives Bulls a buzzer-beating win, a night after the Lakers had their own

CHICAGO (AP) — Josh Giddey could feel it as soon as the ball left his fingertips. In a flash, teammates were mobbing him.

Giddey's buzzer-beating halfcourt heave capped what might be the wildest finish in the NBA this season and gave the surging Chicago Bulls a 119-117 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.

“Special moment to do it with these guys, this team,” Giddey said.

The Lakers, meanwhile, went from winning at Indiana on a tip-in by LeBron James at the buzzer on Wednesday to losing in gut-wrenching fashion. They also took it on the chin again from Chicago after getting blown out in Los Angeles on Saturday.

“Devastation,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “It’s a hell of a way to lose a basketball game.”

The Lakers led by 13 midway through the fourth quarter and appeared to be in good shape up 115-110 after Austin Reaves made two free throws with 12.6 seconds remaining, only to lose for the eighth time in 12 games. They have a day to shake it off before closing out a four-game trip at Memphis.

“We put ourselves in position to win, gave up a lot of 3s in the fourth quarter, still put ourselves in position to win,” James said. “Horrible turnover by myself, miscommunication the play before that. AR tried to save us. Tip your hats."

The Bulls made 11 of 14 3-pointers in the fourth. They nailed three in the final 10 seconds, starting with one by Patrick Williams.

Giddey then stole a pass from James and fed Coby White for a 3 to put the Bulls on top with 6.1 seconds remaining.

Reaves drove for a layup to give the Lakers a 117-116 lead with 3.3 seconds left, Chicago had just enough time to pull out the win.

Giddey inbounded to Patrick Williams, got the ball back and pulled up near the Bulls logo. He held his follow-through right until the shot fell through the net, giving the Bulls their ninth win in 11 games and setting off one wild celebration.

“We’ve shown over the last month to six weeks that we can beat anybody,” Giddey said. “The way we play the game, I think it wears people down. We get up and down. We run. We put heat on them to get back. A lot of veteran teams don’t particularly want to get back and play in transition.”

The Bulls looked like a lifeless team a month ago. They traded Zach LaVine to Sacramento prior to the deadline and seemed to be packing it in after six straight losses left them with a 22-35 record. They're 11-5 since then, and they haven't just been picking on weak teams. They've beaten the Lakers twice and Denver in the past three games and also have a win over Indiana during this stretch.

Giddey and White have been at their best lately.

Giddey delivered his fifth triple-double on Thursday with 25 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists. The only Bulls player with more in a season was Michael Jordan with 15 in 1988-89.

White finished with 26 points after scoring 35 or more in a career-high three straight games, and the Bulls simply didn't quit. Coach Billy Donovan said that took hold in September, during the players' workouts at the team's facility prior to the start of training camp.

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Los Angeles Lakers' Austin Reaves (15) goes up for a shot against Chicago Bulls' Nikola Vucevic (9) during the second half of an NBA game Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago Bulls' Josh Giddy (3) goes up for a shot against Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James (23) during the second half of an NBA game Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick looks on during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls, Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan looks on during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago Bulls' Josh Giddy (3) celebrates with teammate Nikola Vucevic (9) after making the winning basket in an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago Bulls' Coby White (0) celebrates after making a three-point basket during the final seconds of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago Bulls' Josh Giddy (3) celebrates with teammates after making the winning basket in an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has responded to a letter sent by U.S. President Donald Trump to its supreme leader in an attempt to jump-start talks over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program, rejecting the option of direct talks.

The decision by Tehran leaves open the possibility of indirect talks with Washington. However, such talks have made no progress since Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.

Trump has threatened new sanctions on Iran as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign targeting the country. He also again suggested military action against Iran remained a possibility, while emphasizing he still believed a new deal could be reached.

Iran's 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday warned Iran would respond to any attack with an attack of its own.

Here's what to know about the letter, Iran's nuclear program and the overall tensions that have stalked relations between Tehran and Washington since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Trump dispatched the letter to Khamenei on March 5, then gave a television interview the next day in which he acknowledged sending it. He said: “I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing.’” Since returning to the White House, the president has been pushing for talks while simultaneously ratcheting up sanctions and suggesting a military strike by Israel or the U.S. could target Iranian nuclear sites.

A previous letter from Trump during his first term drew an angry retort from the supreme leader.

But Trump’s letters to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first term led to face-to-face meetings, though no deals to limit Pyongyang’s atomic bombs and a missile program capable of reaching the continental U.S.

On Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian rejected direct negotiations with the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program.

“We don’t avoid talks; it’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,” Pezeshkian said in televised remarks during a Cabinet meeting. “They must prove that they can build trust.”

On Monday, Khamenei seemingly reacted to comments by Trump renewing his threat of military action.

“They threaten to commit acts of mischief, but we are not entirely certain that such actions will take place,” the supreme leader said. “We do not consider it highly likely that trouble will come from the outside. However, if it does, they will undoubtedly face a strong retaliatory strike.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei went even further.

“An open threat of ‘bombing’ by a Head of State against Iran is a shocking affront to the very essence of International Peace and Security,” he wrote on the social platform X. “Violence breeds violence, peace begets peace. The US can choose the course...; and concede to CONSEQUENCES.”

Iran has insisted for decades that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officials increasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to near weapons-grade levels of 60%, the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so.

Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium only up to 3.67% purity and to maintain a uranium stockpile of 300 kilograms (661 pounds). The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran’s program put its stockpile at 8,294.4 kilograms (18,286 pounds) as it enriches a fraction of it to 60% purity.

U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program, but has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.”

Iran was once one of the U.S.'s top allies in the Mideast under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who purchased American military weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts monitoring the neighboring Soviet Union. The CIA had fomented a 1953 coup that cemented the shah's rule.

But in January 1979, the shah, fatally ill with cancer, fled Iran as mass demonstrations swelled against his rule. The Islamic Revolution followed, led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and created Iran's theocratic government.

Later that year, university students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seeking the shah's extradition and sparking the 444-day hostage crisis that saw diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S. severed. The Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s saw the U.S. back Saddam Hussein. The “Tanker War” during that conflict saw the U.S. launch a one-day assault that crippled Iran at sea, while the U.S. later shot down an Iranian commercial airliner.

Iran and the U.S. have see-sawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy in the years since, with relations peaking when Tehran made a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. But Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord, sparking years of tensions in the Mideast that persist today.

Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed.

This combo of pictures show President Donald Trump, left, addressing a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, March 4, 2025, and a handout of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attending a ceremony in Tehran, Iran, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis - Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)