“Not the playoffs, the Lakers are not going to be in the play-in as well”: Shannon Sharpe analyses LeBron James and co.’s remaining schedule and makes a bold take

After the Lakers’ yesterday night’s loss against the Raptors, Shannon Sharpe states that LeBron James and co. will be missing the play-in this year.

To call the Los Angeles Lakers a subpar team this season, will be a massive understatement. Over the past two games, LeBron James and co. have been outscored by 47 points in the first quarter combined. Grabbing back-to-back embarrassing losses on consecutive nights, the Lakers have now lost 20 out of their last 28 games putting them only 1 game in front of the Pelicans.

Amid all their struggles this season, analyst Shannon Sharpe believes that Bron and co. will be sitting out during the postseason. Not only missing the playoffs but also missing the play-in tournament. After the LA-based team’s 11-point loss vs the Raptors, Sharpe made his case:

“I think they’re gonna miss the playoffs. There’s no reason for optimism. Now I just turn into the game to see how many points LeBron’s gonna score. They don’t play any defense, they turn the ball over, guys are getting shoot around threes, I’m talking about wide open. 

But they got crushed on the glass, they got beat by 21 (vs Raptors). And when you play a small lineup, you can’t worry about leaking out, you can’t worry about getting fastbreak points, you gotta have everybody come in to try to get in the glass. They got outrebounded 64-43. 64-43, Skip! Come on, you’re not beating anybody.”

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“The Lakers are going to be favored 1 time out of their next 14 games”: Shannon Sharpe on LeBron James and co.

Shannon spoke about how the Lakers have the 2^nd toughest remaining schedule in the entire association, and he doesn’t see how the team could end up winning games. Sharpe said:

“Skip, they’re not winning. Look at their schedule – they’re going to be favored 1 time (out of 14 games). At Minnesota, we’re going to talk about KAT just dropped 60. 60 and 17. Toronto just beat the brakes of off them. Washington, Philly, New Orleans, Dallas, Utah, look at that schedule. They’ll be favoured in one game – OKC at home.

How do they hold on, Skip? How do they hold on because right now they’re a game in front of the Pelicans, they’re 2.5 games in front of the Blazers, they’re 3.5 games in front of the Spurs. With that schedule on the horizon, and couple of those are back-to-back. We saw what they looked like Sunday, and then they followed that up with Monday with an even worse performance, just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse.”

He further stated that LBJ needed to have a big game every single night for the Lakers to grab wins.

“If LeBron doesn’t score 50, they don’t win. And LeBron, you look at LeBron’s stat line – yeah he had 30 in that but LeBron didn’t play well last night. I’m here to tell you LeBron did not play well last night. 5 turnovers, he just… nah.

If you’re gonna keep this game from getting out of hand, he might need to have a KAT (Karl-Anthony Towns) like stat line. Like KAT got 32 in the 3rd, LeBron needed 32 at the half to offset what was going on with the Raptors.“

.@ShannonSharpe on where he sees the Lakers finishing this year: pic.twitter.com/ouDTTAH7rJ

— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) March 15, 2022

 Shannon Sharpe blasts the Lakers for their poor defense

Further on, the “UNDISPUTED” analyst attacked the 2020 champs for their subpar defense all year long.

“A team that turns the ball over like they do, so now you’re taking possessions away where I’m not even getting a shot up at the basket. A team that played defense as poorly as they do, where teams are getting layups. This is a layup line for teams or they’re getting shoot around threes. How do you win? You’re not gonna win.

Skip, I said ‘play-in’, they better just hope they can you know… I don’t see it. Honestly, Skip, I’m looking at this, Skip, I just don’t see it. 9 of the 12 games on the road, they got the 2nd toughest schedule outside of Chicago. Skip, honestly, I don’t see it.

I think they’re gonna miss the playoffs. Not the playoffs, they’re not going to be in the play-in. They’re going to miss the playoffs entirely.”

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