The Los Angeles Lakers lost in disappointing fashion to the Phoenix Suns, 123-113, on Sunday. It was a fairly crucial contest for them, as they entered it in ninth place in the Western Conference and trailing the eighth-place Suns by just 2 1/2 games.
The Lakers lost this contest in two main effort categories: rebounding and free throws. They were outrebounded by 17, a deficiency that was especially glaring on their defensive backboards and led to 22 second-chance points for Phoenix.
But it was very odd to see L.A. attempt just eight foul shots, which was a season-low for it, while Phoenix attempted 19 foul shots. LeBron James publicly said after the game that he thought his team was the victim of biased officiating.
On Fox Sports 1’s “Undisputed,” Skip Bayless made a wild claim about why James doesn’t get to the free-throw line as often as he feels he should. While Bayless made a valid point beforehand that referees favor teams that force the action and initiate contact, his reasoning why James doesn’t get a ton of foul calls doesn’t make sense (at 3:23).
“(James) is going to the free-throw line yesterday and he makes one of four. I have told you that he deserves more calls than he gets, but his free throw shooting is still so pathetic — I’m not going to give him a pass today because he brought it up. He said, ‘I think the narrative is we get to the free throw line.’ The narrative is that you’re right at your career average from the free throw line, and it’s pathetic.
“Do you know how terrible it is to shoot 73.5% when you are the all-time leading scorer in the history of the league?” Bayless asked co-host Keyshawn Johnson. “He’s not even Michael Jordan at the free-throw line because Michael shot 84% and LeBron is stuck at 73.5%. How do you not improve over 21 years? And that’s what’s happening. That’s why he doesn’t get calls ’cause they’re saying, ‘You’re a lousy free throw shooter.’”
While James is attempting a career-low 5.4 free throw attempts a game, his free-throw attempt rate of 30.1% is significantly higher than it was last season and the highest it’s been in three years. While that second figure isn’t quite where it used to be for him, it’s not bad for someone who doesn’t attack the basket as much as he did when he was younger.
The problem with Bayless’ reasoning is there are enough superstars who are below-average…
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