The Los Angeles Lakers began their clash against the Sacramento Kings in a quite impressive manner. Backed by the solid performance of LeBron James, D’Angelo Russell, and Rui Hachimura, the Lakers took a commanding 19-point lead towards the end of the 1st quarter itself. However, by allowing De’Aaron Fox and co. to go on a 54-20 run from the end of the opening frame to the conclusion of the second period, the Lakers find themselves trailing by 15 points. For their awful display, Skip Bayless mocked Darvin Ham’s team reiterating himself from a few days ago.
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Skip has made a name for himself by ripping apart teams and players, especially LeBron James. Although, many find him biased and impractical the majority of the time, his criticism of the Lakers’ 2nd quarter performance seems justifiable. Taking to X (formerly “Twitter”), the UNDISPUTED analyst highlighted the shocking stats from the first half of the Lakers-Kings battle.
“I just watched an amazing development. The Lakers were up 19 on the Kings late first quarter. Now, at half, the Lakers trail 72-59. THEY GAVE UP A 54-20 RUN AT HOME. The Kings are the King’s daddy.”
Merely a few days ago, the Fox Sports analyst chose similar words while reacting to the Denver Nuggets’ win over the LA side. Using Michael Malone’s words from the 2023 postseason, Bayless referred to Nikola Jokic and co. as “the Lakers’ daddy”.
Nuggets have handed Lakers defeat this season on all of their special occasions, be it Kobe Bryant’s statue unveiling, the opening game or Bron’s 40,000 milestone achievement game.
LeBron James and co. came back from a 21-point deficit a week ago
The 2nd quarter excellence of De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, and Davion Mitchell, combining for 45+ points in the first half, allowed the Sacramento Kings to not only erase the 19-point lead but also go up by 15 points entering halftime.
The Kings will enter the second half as the favorites to win the contest. However, one cannot rule out the possibility of a comeback. Merely a week ago, against the Los Angeles Clippers, LeBron James and co. found themselves trailing by 21 points in the fourth quarter. An impressive 19-point performance in the quarter by LBJ allowed the Purple & Gold to outscore the Clippers 39-16, eventually winning the game 116-112.
While the Lakers can manage to be incredible on the offensive end, preventing Fox from going on a scoring outburst will be a real challenge and the key to their comeback.
