“LeBron James, here come the Spurs”: Skip Bayless warns the LA Lakers about losing the play-in spot as they slip down to 10th position after Pelicans win over Hawks

Skip Bayless once again manages to call out LeBron James on an off-night after New Orleans Pelicans defeat the Atlanta Hawks.

Jonas Valanciunas dropped 26 points and grabbed 12 boards to lead New Orleans Pelicans past Atlanta, overtaking the 10th-seeded Lakers. The Pelicans are one place above LA, while the Hawks are on pace to finish 10th in the Eastern Conference.

The CJ McCollum trade revived the Pelicans, even without Zion Williamson. They’re obviously not a championship team right now but decidedly better than LeBron James and co – especially after their 28-point thumping last month.

The NBA introduced the play-in tournament as a temporary fix in the bubble after shortened seasons. But they decided to make it permanent after the massive viewership garnered from the faceoff between LeBron James and Stephen Curry last season.

It gives the 9th and 10th seed an extra opportunity to earn a playoff spot when the records are very close. The Lakers defeated Golden State Warriors last season for 7th seed, but it’s a different story altogether this time around.

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Skip Bayless believes the San Antonio Spurs are coming for the Lakers

Fox Sports analyst Skip Bayless has a rare talent of bringing up LeBron James even on nights he isn’t playing. Somewhere some player could be making clutch free throws and its an opportunity for Skip to troll the 4x MVP’s FT% this season.

Last night New Orleans Pelicans tied their record with the Lakers and overtook them for the 9th spot in the Western Conference. It will be a dog fight between the two for home-court advantage in the play-in tournament. San Antonio Spurs are 2.5 games behind but Bayless strongly believes that they are eyeing 10th seed over LeBron James and co.

 

With Pels’ win at Atl, LeBron’s Lakers fall to 10th – last in the play-in. And don’t look now, Bron, but here come the Spurs, who just won at GSt, threatening to knock the Fakers completely out of the playoffs. Oh, but that’s right, all that matters is winning the scoring title.

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) March 21, 2022

The Spurs have pulled off some surprising wins over big teams this season, so they cannot be ruled out completely. However, out of the three teams competing for 9th and 10th seed, the Lakers have the toughest schedule coming up. They have Philadelphia 76ers, Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, and Utah Jazz in their schedule. Whereas Pelicans and Spurs have relatively easy matchups ahead.

It is not far-fetched to say that Spurs could overtake the Lakers but Anthony Davis‘ return could change everything.

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