Skip Bayless Rips Luka Doncic for Ruining LeBron James’ Birthday With 22-Point Rout

Skip Bayless blamed Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic for their 11th loss of the season.

Skip Bayless Rips Luka Doncic for Ruining LeBron James’ Birthday With 22-Point Rout

Skip Bayless on LeBron James and Luka Doncic (Image credits - Firstsportz)

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Well-known television personality and sports columnist Skip Bayless has made a name for himself by being one of the biggest critics of LeBron James. Bayless is an ardent fan of Michael Jordan and, therefore, has always been overly critical of James despite all his achievements and accolades. But the former host of the Skip and Shannon Undisputed show shifted his criticism to James’ teammate Luka Doncic on Tuesday night.

It was a momentous day for James as he celebrated his 41st birthday. But the celebrations were cut short as the Los Angeles Lakers suffered a heavy defeat and were blown out 128-106 by the Detroit Pistons at the Crypto.com Arena. It was the Lakers’ 11th loss of the 2025-26 campaign and their sixth loss at home in 14 games.

The blowout loss dropped the Lakers to fifth in the Western Conference standings with a 20-11 record, while the Detroit Pistons maintain their strong start to the season and sit at the top of the Eastern Conference standings with a 25-8 record and are 1.5 games ahead of second place, the New York Knicks.

Luka Doncic is the focal point for the Lakers as the Lakers’ management prepares itself for the post-James era. The Lakers’ strong start to the season is largely due to Doncic’s MVP-caliber season. The Slovenian leads the league in scoring and is currently averaging 33.5 points, 8.2 rebounds and 8.7 assists. But his lack of energy in defense, poor three-point shooting and high number of turnovers has led to some criticism, especially from Bayless.

Lakers’ backcourt trio of Doncic, James and Austin Reaves have been labelled by many as the one of the most lethal offensive trios in NBA history. But their lack of defense has raised some serious questions regarding their championship contention as they continue to struggle against young and athletic teams.

After the Lakers’ loss to the Pistons, Bayless blamed Doncic for their humiliating loss. He wrote on X:

Lakers blown out at home by Pistons mostly because of Luka’s killer inefficiency: 8 turnovers, 3-11 from 3. LEADS NBA IN TURNOVERS. 2nd in NBA in 3 attempts, yet only a pathetic 31% from 3. Just hard to overcome Luka. You miss this, Dallas???

Doncic led the scorers and scored a game-high 30 points to go along with five rebounds and 11 assists, recording a double-double. But the Lakers guard made only 3-11 threes, shooting 27.3% from the three-point line, and committed eight turnovers.

LA Lakers’ Achilles heel is getting worse

Despite their impressive start to the campaign, the Lakers have shown that their lack of defense continues to be an Achilles heel. The ‘Purple and Gold’ have lost four out of their last five games and have been blown away in all their losses.

While they were stacking up wins earlier in the season, their offense masked their defensive problems but their recent losses have shown that head coach JJ Redick and his coaching staff have their hands tied at the moment as their offensive weapons do not play much defense. The Lakers are ranked 29th in defensive rating for games played in December.

LeBron James
LeBron James (Image credits – CNN)

After the game, James spoke about their poor defensive effort against the Pistons in his locker-room interview.

I thought defensively tonight we had moments but it’s going to be hard to defend pick sixes. We had too many pick sixes where we turned the ball over, it’s hard to get back, you’re not getting back, teams are running us. You give up a lot of transition points…we just got to get better on that side of the floor.

At this point in the season, the Lakers have a long way to go to bridge the gap between the top teams in the West and themselves.

Identity crisis for the LA Lakers

JJ Redick’s hiring as the Lakers’ head coach came with a lot of criticism, as the former NBA player got the job without any prior coaching experience at the professional level. But since joining the franchise, he has done a good job.

The Lakers finished third in the Western Conference standings last season but were knocked out by the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games in the first round of the playoffs, highlighting their defensive woes. A disappointed Redick was asked about the Lakers’ DNA in the post-match press conference.

Still trying to figure that out. And I know that’s, maybe a cop out. But I do know that we have had a lot of stops and starts… Not just the staff, I’m saying our team: players, staff, everybody. We’ve really tried to play the right way every night and have the right intent. The flow of lineup and rotations, and all that, has been challenging for everybody. It’s a challenge for the players, and building an identity is difficult.

While their offense has gotten better this season after the rise of Reaves who has been one of the stories of the season for the Lakers, their defensive problems still persist. The Lakers still have over a month to sign a young and athletic wing defender who could create a defensive impact for them heading forward.

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