‘Just pass it to whoever Luka Doncic was guarding’: Skip Bayless ridicules LeBron James for not exploiting Mavs star’s abysmal defence

Skip Bayless is acting confused since LeBron James did not score 20 points in the first half despite only Luka Doncic guarding him.

The headliner for Christmas Day this year is the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Dallas Mavericks bout as it pits Luka Doncic against reigning Finals MVP, LeBron James.

The marquee matchup between LeBron and the projected 2021 NBA MVP Luka Doncic is a game within a game. Each time James plays Luka, the narrative him “passing the torch down” to Luka comes up.

Throughout the first half of the game, LeBron was Luka’s primary defensive assignment. He defended LeBron well as James put up an average 14 points to finish out the half.

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According to Skip Bayless, this wasn’t enough on the 4x MVP’s part.

Skip Bayless goes off on LeBron James for not scoring enough in the first half

Leave it to Skip Bayless to find some fault in James’s game when it is apparent that that “fault” isn’t all too significant.

Following the first half of the Lakers vs. Mavs game, with the Lakers up 69-57, Bayless took to Twitter to say, “Surprised LeBron didn’t go for 20 in the first half as Luka was guarding him.”

Surprised LeBron didn’t go for at least 20 in the first half with Luka guarding him. As Kyle Kuzma said after a win at Dallas last season: “We just passed it to whoever Luka was guarding.”

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) December 26, 2020

This was also a subtle jab at Luka’s defense as Skip implied that whoever Luka is guarding should essentially go off.

LeBron did have a clean turnaround fadeaway in Luka’s face with less than a minute to go in the 2^nd quarter.

LeBron hits this filthy fadeaway over Luka 😳

(via @NBATV)pic.twitter.com/VdaerrcXYw

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 26, 2020

Should James have scored more in the first half?

It has become a pattern for LeBron to facilitate more in the first half, than to take over the game and score 20-25 points in that time period.

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Going into his 18^th season, preserving his body and energy for the second half of games becomes more important than showcasing his offensive prowess. It is very well known by now that James has the ability to take over games on the offensive end of the floor at will.

Facilitating and getting his teammates open looks to get them going offensively early on is a better use of James’s skillset in the first half.