UNDISPUTED | "Lakers are DONE!" - Paul Pierce tells Skip Bayless on Warriots beat Lakers 128-121

hey look who's here the truth is about to say some truth about the

lakers

and the warriors the mavericks and kyrie irving who was welcome back 34 what's up i missed you okay let's start with that abomination of the end of the Lakers Warriors game on Saturday. The night was marred by a 20-minute delay, this is a national television game due to shot clocks that kept malfunctioning for the Lakers. I don't know what that was, marred even worse by the replay reversal of a LeBron 3 that I thought I should have

done

. He stopped while his heel didn't touch the ground out of bounds, but when play finally resumed after four stops, Steph immediately stole it from LeBron, all but ending a Lakers comeback and the Warriors winning by seven.

The Lakers fall once again to 10th place. I can't believe it. they're the 10th seed, the final play at the venue is unreal, so Paul, what was your take on what happened here Saturday night in Los Angeles? I mean, things happen, things jump, I mean the shot clock, whatever the replay, the replay. I think they need to remove it. I think it takes up too much of the game. Yes, you want to do it right. You have three referees. Someone has to be given the right decision. Know? and I think I have been a victim of.

Replay back in my days when I thought I had shot you can't even tell because the high resolution wasn't even as high as in Bron in the shot yeah yeah so I think you just remove replay because it slows down the game ruins the fan like I had to stop watching I went to the bathroom had a cup of coffee and I just lost what I wanted to feel but can you remember four stops on the shot clock malfunction never ever just seemed like? like something I've never seen them, well, I mean, what was technically wrong, I mean you can't really, you have a backup and it malfunctioned, so I don't know the wiring or something was wrong, I don't know, but Kean is the Los Lakers, come on, come on, first, screw up the language in Kobe's statute.

I'm like, what are you doing now? I'm just a punching bag for the Lakers right now. Paul here and you here, so now come on, I don't even do it. I know why we're talking about the 10 Lakers anyway, why are we talking about them? Touche, why are we talking about the ninth-ranked Golden State Warriors when there are other teams that need clarification? Well, you played in the NBA. for 20 years like I'm tired of the Lakers, yeah the Lakers are going to lose. LeBron will get 40. He's great at getting the stats out of him, but the truth of the matter is key when I've been watching the Lakers this year.

Yes, LeBron has been great numbers-wise, but. LeBron had to take a step back, had to take a step back and do what he had to do to get the ball up a little bit more, yeah I buy it, don't listen, don't listen, he's averaging since the All-Star break, look, look at his numbers 299 and 7 57 of the The field 45 of three is not a result and wins when LeBron exposed who they

beat

Milwaukee, a cont tender D, they went to Boston and got a win without LeBron, but don't do this, Paul , true, but I don't think, I think it's older.

He needs to take a step back the less he does, the more he will be for the team and that is not bad that you say take a step back in terms of mastering the ball, yes, but he is too good, he needs to live. he needs to let Reigns go, he needs to let DLo go, he needs to let Reeves go, it's so when they played their two most impressive wins in the last two weeks it was Milwaukee and the Lakers, and LeBron didn't play in either of them. Mostly I mean, yeah, yeah, I mean, in Boston LeBron didn't play either in Boston, it was last year in Boston, last year, man, you don't go to Boston and just win, yeah, but Boston came back. to look like the next Larry Bird.

Without LeBron, I mean, and by the way, to the point of him in the fourth quarter the other night, LeBron took eight shots and made five, but the point is that it didn't result in the victory. Austin Reeves took one shot in the fourth quarter and the other. night and I made it and that was it, but whose fault is it because LeBron's player is that the players on the court blame Paul that they just say here you go, he has a strangled control over the offense. I think you can really unleash this offense. If he did a little more ball movement, maybe he set some screens, he doesn't, we don't need LeBron to get 30 like in the past.

I think the less he does, the more for the team and I think he has to unlock it. these players let's make an excuse for the Lakers like, oh, they need more, no, no, you have good role players, you have DLo Reeves, like I said, you have Anthony Davis, who is a top 10 player, but the role player, but the role player shot last night they shot 26% they have no rhythm if I'm a role player and I'm sitting there the whole game and I don't get the ball until there are two minutes left. I'm running. I'm really just doing cardio yeah it's hard for them to get into a rhythm yeah when LeBron's not playing they're in rhythm because they touch the ball even if you don't shoot the ball if they dribble it to you.

Coming on the field with a ball, you can somehow still get into a rhythm, that's how the game of basketball moves quickly, so DLo, who scored 44 against Milwaukee here without LeBron, is 8 for 15 going into the fourth quarter on Saturday night, but in the fourth quarter it was one to six and he seemed completely out of sorts and out of rhythm because there was nothing coming to him on time, everything was late, you know, oh, I got to Jack, um, I have to throw. okay and one out of six and it didn't work and I'm sure you're sitting there saying where are you, right?

I was sitting there saying where you are, no doubt, okay, now the other one where you're saying where you are. You're Anthony Davis and he got hit in the eye and it looked like he was swelling up and closing up. Could you have won the game if he had been right in the second half? Sure, I think I would have won the game. I'm pretty sure he should have sucked it up and tried to play if it's the National Football League, you're probably going to play, you probably put an eye patch on him, but like I asked Paul, yeah, who played in the NBA? ?

There is a way you can put an eye patch on it and I mean there are shots with one eye. I, boys, play with broken noses and a mask. Yes, it could affect his shot or his trajectory since the shootout at The Rim, but there are effort plays you can. Don't let that stop you from defending, blocking shots, making effective plays, you can still go out, you know, I don't know how much pain he was in or maybe I don't even know if he broke his eye socket. I really don't know, I really don't know, so he has a history of minor injuries from candy.

Has he been injury prone? Yes, he has, but it's bad luck, though that's all. He can't buy a break. I'm just being honest with you. You played with a lot of guys that just couldn't buy a break, but football is a little different than basketball, it's a little different, it's almost like we expect to have certain injuries, scrapes, bruises and bumps. I don't necessarily know that in basketball, if that's the case, you know it's a tough sport. I played enough basketball to know it's tough. It is not. It's not easy for them, those big old guys running up to you and slapping your hands and stuff like that. that but for some reason he's always in a bad situation he's always in a bad situation I don't know what it is it's like he needs a Lucky Rabbit paw in his back pocket or something because that's something that always happens to him I mean, I mean the The fact that we're sitting here spending 10 minutes on what we do, they're not a contender thing, they might not even be a playoff team, so you're going to tell me the Lakers this year in Sometimes you didn't look at them, Paul, and you were like, man, they would do it if they could get V to give Vincent back and no, so this year it was about LeBron getting 40,000 points and breaking the score, it was about him continuing to move the needle. an older player you know as far as winning, so you don't think if they had a healthy roster from start to finish with Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent, plus everything else they had, Vin, so those two players. it's going to move you said you said role players yeah but no V shot them like he was hitting Miami for us why aren't they better?

LeBron is having a great year and statistically he is having a great year because of the way LeBron is shooting. 41% from three, that's a career high, they have to do less, they have to do less, if you want to unlock these role players, you have to do less, I mean, I'm not going to go, I'm not going to argue, We are aware of the statistics. mistake the guys know how LeBron knows how to get the stats from him. Look, I don't think it's just about LeBron's stats, it's about how he wins now. How can I make these guys better?

Yeah, you can get the eight and nine assists, but like. when you don't have rhythm as role players you can't unlock them, why are role players so much better without LeBron? No, it's a fair question, why are they so much better without LeBron? Obviously, be afraid, yes, the team is not better without LeBron. The team isn't better, but the role players are, so what I'm saying is if he did a little less on the offensive end and held the ball less, maybe set some screens for some of them, maybe it was to the post, maybe he moved away from the ball. a little more can open up the offense can buy opening up the offense that's all I'm saying I'm not going to argue with an NBA Hall of Fame basketball player about not opening up the offense in the NBA I'm just telling you as a fan what I'm seeing if they feel that for me they are afraid of LeBron, they don't want to do something that makes him feel, no one is going to say: "Hey, come on, LeBron, why not, there won't be anyone there?

I because that's LeBron, everyone had posters of Lebron in their room while they were growing up and they didn't come, so for me that's up to the coach. What the coach is going to tell LeBron. It's about telling the other guys, yeah. okay, okay, such a fight hole and such a presence, he has such a presence, what do you do? You don't walk up to LeBron and look at him and say, hey, he was open, they don't even GNA say no Kean, you know? why I value this man's opinion I value that he played I value him not only did he play but in my time watching LeBron as closely as I have I don't want to hear anything about Paul giving him fits and all F talking nobody nobody was Nobody attacked him better than this man from La I don't want to hear that, although I don't want to hear that he has a certain personality and a certain mentality, he doesn't play anymore, man. like me, I don't care about that, I'm talking about what LeBron is doing right now, yeah, for like 10 years, this guy gave LeBron fits, yeah, he did a good job, so I appreciate what he's saying because he saw it well.

Mind you, as close and personal as you can get, yeah, there we go, right now, Paul, back to you, the reason we're talking about the Lakers is because they came out of 10th place last year and you look up and they . We're in the conference finals against Denver and they're taking them to the limit four times in a row, but they can't close it out because LeBron tries to close it out, but Austin Reeves has a hot hand and he's not taking shots and LeBron stunk in those four. fourth he just did it he wasn't he couldn't get a h we won't see that this year I'll tell you why they went to the Conference Finals because after such a depressing year before the trade there was excitement, you know? when when you buy a new pair of shoes or a new car there is enthusiasm around it and then it disappears, it was an enthusiasm around the trade where everyone got excited and enjoyed playing with each other, there was new energy in the building and they rolled that to the Finals of Conference now everything is settled, we are seeing who the Lakers really are, we will not see them reach the Conference Finals again the way they are playing, they have six and six since the Allstar, but you. re 500 Team is ok yes