A select few in the league get an opportunity to make the winning shot in a clutch situation for their teams and become part of history. Jamal Murray lived this moment when he nailed a game-winning stepback jumper over Anthony Davis. The Lakers’ loyalists are still appalled at how the team managed to blow up a 10+ points lead, in two back-to-back games. On ‘UNDISPUTED’, Skip Bayless hailed the Canadian guard’s winning shot, not missing out on jibing LeBron James.
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Since the start of the playoffs, the FS1 analyst has upped the ante against LBJ. The Lakers’ Game 2 loss gave him another opportunity to point out James’ lack of “clutch gene”. The 72-year-old admitted that the 4x Finals MVP made key shots in the fourth quarter including two key three-pointers. However, he compared the same condition with Kobe Bryant or Magic Johnson in the team.
For Bayless, there was “no way” Mamba would have let his team lose from that position. Later in the segment, Bayless pointed the attention to the wide-open three-point miss by James with 16.9 seconds left. James made Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit the floor and took a great look before taking the shot. For the host, LBJ’s move was reminiscent of Michael Jordan fending off Byron Russell for the 1996 Finals Game 6 game-winner, minus the finish,
“When KCP went flying, I thought this is a Byron Russell moment. It looked just like it. LeBron gathered himself and he went up… He just don’t have the clutch gene. You don’t have the closer gene. This is a closer’s game.”
While the All-time leading scorer did miss a potential game-winner, it shouldn’t have come to this. A guy, who shot less than 40% from the field, rising to the opportunity and nailing a historic jumper over one of the most polished defensive players in the league, shows the winner mentality. The Lakers have a lot to introspect after they lost a game where they were up by double-digits till the middle of the final quarter. Pierce highlighted one of those aspects.
Paul Pierce touches upon Lakers’ last-quarter woes
As per the Truth, this performance wasn’t a mirage but the tale of the season for the Lakers. They have found themselves up big but have missed to close out games repeatedly. During Game 1, the Lakeshow had also relinquished the lead because of a poorly executed third quarter.
Pierce believed that the Lakers look like champions on many nights but their late-game miscue leaves a lot to be desired. He also reflected upon AD’s monster 32-point performance but lamented him missing all his shots during crunch time,
“The Lakers though just revert back to old habits. Second half they give up three, they don’t play defense and they hope that somehow magically the Denver Nuggets will go away no matter what the lead is.”
The 2008 champion seems to be on point with his observations. During the 2023 WCF, the Lakers choked similarly. They’d take a big lead in the first half but then make an ocean of errors to give up their advantage. Meanwhile, the Nuggets, especially Murray kept making clutch plays. This pattern led to a 0-4 sweep and the Lakers are on the verge of repeating the big loss.
