Lakers Throw It Away Against Bulls at End : Pro basketball: Grant’s tip-in wins it as Chicago rallies from five-point deficit in final 22 seconds, 88-86.

Michael may have left the building, but 15,512 showed up at the Forum Friday night to see what remained of the Chicago Bulls, giving the Lakers their first crowd of more than 12,000 since opening night.

The answer to the question: Enough still remained to beat the Lakers.

Without Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Scott Williams and John Paxson, the Bulls rallied from a five-point deficit in the last 22 seconds and beat the Lakers, 88-86, on Horace Grant’s buzzer-beating rebound basket.

“It was a gift,” said Bull Coach Phil Jackson, avoiding his first four-game losing streak in four seasons. “We appreciate it.”

The Lakers led, 86-81, with 24 seconds left, then disintegrated in a series of mistakes, including two key ones by rookie point guard Nick Van Exel.

With 21 seconds left, Van Exel fouled B.J. Armstrong on a layup. Armstrong made the basket, went to the foul line and cut it to 86-84.

“Of all the dumb things that happened to us, for us to foul them on a layup was the worst,” Laker Coach Randy Pfund said. “Let them have the layup.”

Van Exel then let them have the ball back, throwing it out of bounds against the Bulls’ press. At the other end, Armstrong made a turnaround 16-footer over Van Exel with three seconds left to tie the score, 86-86.

The Lakers weren’t done messing up. Their inbounds play, Vlade Divac passing to Doug Christie cutting high, went awry when Christie fell. The ball went out of bounds to the Bulls.

The Bulls’ last play wound up as a desperate Steve Kerr heave from 20 feet that bounced off the front rim.

Just before the buzzer--the referees ruled, although replays seemed to show otherwise--Grant beat everyone to the rebound, tipping it in and avoiding offensive interference.

Pfund made no complaint and the Lakers are 3-6.

The teams started the night in similar shape, tired and depressed.

The Lakers were coming off a loss by 27 at Golden State, where they managed to go from 10 points ahead to 31 behind.

After the loss to the Warriors, Pfund noted that several of his players hadn’t come to play, after having suggested, politely, that they had quit a week ago in a 29-point loss to Denver.

“I’m concerned, but hey, I know what kind of a team we have,” Pfund said before Friday’s game. “I look at the box scores every day and I see what the first- and second-year players are doing, coming up with goose eggs every once in a while.”

The Bulls lost Thursday by 22 at Portland--after trailing by 37 in the first half.

Friday’s game was a mess from the start.

The Lakers shot 38% in the first quarter, the Bulls 30% and the home team managed a 21-20 lead.

The Bulls heated up in the second quarter, outrebounding the Lakers by 11 and putting together a 14-4 spurt before halftime to grab a 52-40 lead. Appropriately, Will Perdue led it, scoring six points.

The Lakers came to life in the third quarter. Christie scored nine points in three minutes and the Lakers cut the Bulls’ lead to 66-65.

Down the stretch in the fourth quarter, the Bulls went 6:08 without a basket and the Lakers moved into their 86-81 lead.

But Armstrong, who had missed his previous four shots with a turnover in five consecutive possessions, then beat Van Exel for his layup and the Bulls were on their way back.

“None of us is the scorer of our previous go-to guy,” Armstrong said, alluding of course to Jordan in an all-time understatement.

“The new go-to guy is our team.”

Score one for the new guys.

Laker Notes

Randy Pfund’s list of Lakers who didn’t come to play at Golden State appears to have started with Vlade Divac, who was fined twice in a single day, once for being late to the charter flight, then for missing the bus to the game. . . . Horace Grant set a career record with 23 rebounds, many of them his own misses. He was six for 16 from the field, one for eight from the free-throw line. . . . With a nine-for-18 game, James Worthy ended a slump that had carried his shooting to 39%. “I’m more concerned about James (than the young players),” Pfund said before the game.