"LeBron James is disengaged garbage!" - Skip Bayless goes off on LeBron James after LA Lakers without Russell Westbrook fall to Denver Nuggets
The LeBron James-led LA Lakers fell 110-99 to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday and logged their fourth consecutive loss to start the season. Denver improved to 3-2 on the season.
Two-time and reigning MVP Nikola Jokic logged a near-triple-double, scoring 31 points with 13 rebounds and nine assists. Bruce Brown, Jamal Murray and former Laker Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 18, 13 and 13 points in the win, respectively.
LeBron James scored 19 points and turned the ball over eight times in the loss. Anthony Davis, however, did have a good outing, scoring 22 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.
Following the game, Skip Bayless sounded off his frustrations with LeBron James on "Skip and Shannon: Undisputed:"
"Your man (LeBron James), last night, was disengaged garbage and I don't get it."
LeBron has eight turnovers in the Lakers' 110-99 loss to the Nuggets:
"LeBron was disengaged garbage and I don’t get it. I predicted that if Russ didn’t play, I thought it was a golden opportunity, even in a tough road game in Denver, to make a statement." — @RealSkipBayless https://t.co/bGGqG0R2vp
Bayless added:
"I did tell you as the show ended yesterday, I predicted that your Lakers, if in fact Russ was not going to play and he did not play.
"I thought it was their golden opportunity, even in a tough road game at Denver, 'We are so much better without Russ, the cloud has been lifted, watch this.'
Another day, another loss for LeBron James and the Lakers
At this point, there isn't much analysis for an NBA analyst or a writer to do about the LA Lakers. Even if you go through a 30-minute condensed version of the game and watch all the possessions, it becomes overwhelmingly obvious what the problem is.
The problem, if you have been living under a rock, is shooting. There isn't much to speak of when it comes to it. The Lakers are getting enough good looks, with most of them being late contests or, on some occasions, no contests.
The Lakers are shooting 22.3% from the 3-point range, which is the lowest among all teams in the league. In fact, they are shooting poorly from everywhere.
LA is bottom-five in field-goals made per game, field-goal percentage, 3-pointers made per game, 3-point percentage, free-throw makes and attempts and points per game.
Their outing against the Nuggets was no different from any of their other three games. The game was close at one point, with the Nuggets' double-digit lead being cut down to six, but Denver quickly put their foot on the gas and ended the game up 11.
The Lakers got off to a decent start, tied the game at the half, and lost all momentum in the third quarter, which eventually led to another Hail Mary attempt to save the game in the fourth, inevitably ending in a loss.
But the Lakers haven't been as bad as the numbers might suggest throughout the duration of all their four games.
A particularly interesting stat is the Lakers' point-differential at halftime. Their margin of victory has significant variance (2, 6, 11, 24); however, the point-differential at halftime is a lot less varied (7, 0, 7, 0). So, for what it's worth, the Lakers are doing something good for at least half a game.
A few other bright spots with this team have been their defense (fourth-best in the league), their pace (second best in the league) and, most importantly, good ball movement on offense.
Despite all of this, simply not sinking good looks could very well be the death of this team, but they clearly haven't lost hope. The Lakers are attempting 30 3-pointers a game, just inside the top 10 in the league. So who knows, they just might start making some of them.