“NBA Felt it Owed LeBron James One”: Skip Bayless Suggests Referees Helped Lakers Win in Clutch OT Win After Rui Hachimura Block

The Lakers, after a lot of trouble, have broken their two-game losing streak tonight. In all fairness, the New York Knicks weren’t easy opponents. They fought well but just couldn’t stand LeBron James and Russell Westbrook’s good performance night. Even then, they took the Hollywood team to OT.

The turning point in the game was a controversial block by Rui Hachimura. At first, it was given out to be a block but Refs took it to review. The original call stood even after review and the block ended up shifting the momentum. The Lakers went on to win the game.

However, Skip Bayless, who is known for unreasonably criticizing LeBron James, disagreed with the call and found a way to blame King James.

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Skip Bayless claimed NBA owed LeBron James

Though Skip Bayless is technically an FS1 analyst, he hardly shows any qualities of a good analyst. The former ESPN employee is known for chasing clout by hating on LeBron. He lived up to his reputation even as the Lakers won a well-contested game on Tuesday against the Knicks.

Bayless claimed that the Lakers won because the referees did not call Rui Hachimura’s block a goal tend. He further suggested that this was the NBA’s way of making up to LeBron James after the game-deciding bad call in Boston.

Bayless: “Knicks got hosed on that goal-tend reversal. NBA felt it owed LeBron one after what happened in Boston last Saturday night.”

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) February 1, 2023

In all honesty, the call was awfully close. It was really difficult to ascertain whether the ball was already on its way down. The referees likely gave Hachimura the benefit of doubt.

Bayless also called out LeBron for a ‘quiet’ performance

After the game ended, Bayless suggested that LeBron James wasn’t at his best tonight. He claimed that in comparison to his recent outings, James’ performance today was underwhelming. In his tweet, he wrote:

“I really thought LeBron would have more of a show-stopping game tonight in this season’s lone visit to the Mecca of Basketball. All in all, a pretty quiet performance by his recent standards. But hey, thanks to Russ and Schroder in overtime, the Lakers did win.”

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) February 1, 2023

Skip is obviously wrong in his observation. Granted LeBron had a low-scoring night compared to his recent outings. However, it was in no way a quiet night for him. After all, he registered a triple-double and was only 2 points short of a 30-point night. Definitely not a quiet night for the Kid from Akron.

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