Skip Bayless pinned the lion’s share of the blame for the Lakers’ defeat yesterday on LeBron James. The Lakers star was a bit off in their loss.
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The Lakers fell prey to a redoubtable Suns team that took the lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Despite injury to Chris Paul, they rallied to play some excellent defense against James and co.
Anthony Davis and LeBron were both off the pace, the 28-year-old doubly so. James is easing his way back from injury, so him taking the foot off the gas was a bit understandable. AD, meanwhile, was mainly restricted to jump shots from midrange.
Their spacing problems came to the fore in this game as the Lakers made just 7 3-pointers all game long. Devin Booker lit the Lakers up by aggressively attacking his defenders off the dribble and getting to the rim.
Skip Bayless pins the blame for the Lakers’ loss on LeBron James
Now, AD was undoubtedly put under more pressure than before. His 42-point explosion in these teams’ previous encounters had proved to be enough warning for Monty Williams.
Deandre Ayton and Jae Crowder both made life difficult for the big man, who finished with just 13 points and 7 rebounds in 38 minutes of action. Skip Bayless, meanwhile, blamed LeBron for not being confident enough in attacking the paint:
“The bulk of the blame for yesterday’s defeat is on LeBron’s shoulders, because the focal point of Phoenix’s defense was AD. So in the 4th quarter, I just sat there and I said ‘OK, the King is going to take this game over.'”
This disqualifies LeBron from being remotely close to Jordan as The GOAT. @undisputed. 9:30 AM-Noon ET. FS1. https://t.co/kN5Vs6tUGg
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 24, 2021
“And I waited and I waited through the 4th quarter in which LeBron went 1-of-4 from the field. 0-of-3 from 3 and 1-of-4 from the free throw line? Cannot have it!”
It made no difference to Skip that AD himself came forward to take the blame for the loss.
