It almost seemed like Skip Bayless was genuinely supporting LeBron James and the Lakers during the first-round series up until his reactions from tonight’s contest. Following the Denver Nuggets clinching a 112-105 win and going up 3-0 in the series [per NBA.com], Bayless showed his true colors, berating Darvin Ham’s side for a “shameful”, “embarrassing”, and a “pretty pathetic” loss.
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Before Jamal Murray knocked down the game-winner on Monday night, Skip Bayless was seen lauding LeBron James for an incredible performance. Tonight, however, let’s just say that the FS1 analyst wasn’t as loving as before. Throughout the duration of the battle at the Crypto.com Arena, the UNDISPUTED host kept finding faults in the King’s production, posting about it on X[Formerly Twitter].
During Game 2, LeBron was praised greatly for his three-point shooting. However, his 1-6 shooting from beyond the arc in Game 3, only allowed Bayless to backtrack on his original comments. Additionally, D’Angelo Russell was also ripped apart for the 0-point, 0-6 3FG outing, [per NBA.com].
“LeBron, who made 41% of his threes this season, made only 1 of 6 in tonight’s do-or-die game. And of course, this inspired DLo to go 0-6.”
Skip gave a lot of credit to Aaron Gordon for his display tonight. Being the primary defender to guard James, Gordon restricted the former to nothing more than an inefficient 26 points. Further, AG was significantly more impressive on the other side of the floor, lodging a team-high 29 points and 15 rebounds of his own [per Statmuse].
With the defending champs going up 3-0, the series is practically over. Further, tonight’s win was the Nuggets 11th straight victory against the Lakers. This same feat had Bayless appalled as he filled his tweet with some insulting words to criticize the Purple & Gold.
“The Nuggets just ho-hummed the Lakers, just outclassed and outhustled and outshot and out-everythinged them. The Nuggets just won their 11 straight game and 7th straight playoff game against LeBron’s Lakers. Just shameful. Just embarrassing. Just pretty pathetic.”
Before blaming Murrays’ Game 2’s buzzer-beater for the LA side’s loss tonight, Bayless referenced an iconic chant from the Lakers-Nuggets rivalry. The 72-year-old concluded spamming on X by stating that Michael Malone’s side was the LAL’s “daddies”.
“The Nuggets ARE the Lakers’ daddies. Just own them psychologically. Just broke their spirit at the end of Game 2 when LeBron missed that wide-open 3 and Jamal said, “Watch this.”
Darvin Ham’s side will be completely dejected after tonight’s loss. As for Bayless’s words, while they may seem harsh, given the Lakers’ actions during this postseason, there really isn’t much they can do to go against them.
