The Los Angeles Clippers hosted the Los Angeles Lakers for the fourth and final time this season. After beating the Lakers thrice already, tonight, the Clippers completed the sweep of the season series. LeBron James and co. went down by 24 after the first half, but didn’t give up. They tried to make a push in the 2nd half, but it was too little, too late. The Clippers won the contest 125-118.
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This loss put the Clippers back up on the 5th seed, pushing the Warriors back down to 6th. At the same time, the Lakers snapped their four-game win streak, and are now back to being the 7th seed. With two games left in the season, they’re one game behind the Warriors, and the playoff spot now seems almost out of reach for the Purple and Gold.
While Skip Bayless likes to pin every Lakers loss on LeBron, surprisingly, this time he felt differently.
Skip Bayless praises LeBron James, blames Anthony Davis for loss
A win for the Lakers tonight would have pushed them to a 42-38 record, tied with the Warriors. Since they hold the tiebreaker over the defending champions, they would have risen to the 5th seed. Knowing how big a game tonight was, the Lakers still had a very lackluster start. This made Skip put out this tweet:
Maybe LeBron SHOULDN’T have played tonight. Just looks OUT OF IT. 3 points, 4 turnovers in the 1st half. Lakers getting shot out of their own building right back into the play-in by the “team in the basement,” the crazy-hot Clippers.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) April 6, 2023
However, LeBron turned it around in the 2nd half. He scored 30 points, had 8 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal, and a block in the 2nd half to finish the night with 33 points. While Bron went on fire, Anthony Davis just had 10 points in the half, and was constantly outplayed by Ivica Zubac.
This led to yet another Skip tweet.
LeBron has come back to life in the 2nd half … but AD has turned back into Always Disappointing, outhustled and outplayed tonight by Zu.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) April 6, 2023
In fact, he even called this one of the best halves of LeBron’s career. This is a big compliment, considering how many games Bron has played in his storied 20-year NBA career.
LeBron went from playing very possibly the worst half of his career to playing one of the best, on offense and defense.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) April 6, 2023
Can the Lakers avoid the play-in tournament?
The Los Angeles Lakers are headed to the play-in tournament at the least. With the games tonight, they locked a minimum of 10th seed, meaning that they will fight in the play-in tournament when it starts. However, the playoff hopes arent totally lost for them.
With two games left, both 5th and 6th seeds are just one game away for LeBron James and co. The Warriors are on the road and facing the Kings and the Trailblazers. At the same time, the Clippers are facing the Trailblazers and the Suns.
Now, if either of the Clippers or the Warriors were to spiral, while the Lakers won both their games against the Suns and the Jazz, things might end up looking very differently for the 17x NBA Champions.
