The Los Angeles Lakers returned to the win column against the Oklahoma City Thunder Friday and calmed the noise, but that wasn’t the case the night prior.
Los Angeles lost to the Memphis Grizzlies by 13 points. Memphis did not have Ja Morant, Dillon Brooks or Brandon Clarke available, yet L.A. struggled to contain Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. while LeBron James shouldered the offensive load with little help.
L.A. received plenty of criticism after the disappointing loss, and ESPN analyst and former NBA player Kendrick Perkins blasted the team on “First Take“:
“They don’t deserve to be talked about, they are not good right now. They haven’t earned the right to be talked about because they are trash.”
Perkins then blamed Anthony Davis, but said it wasn’t because of Charles Barkley’s comments about the star big man from a few days ago:
“I’mma say Anthony Davis. He has to man the h-ll up and demand the basketball. … The Lakers are at their best when they run their offense through Anthony Davis on the low block. … If the Lakers have plans of going anywhere, or even have us be worthy of talking about them, they need to get the ball to AD more.”
Until the Lakers win 5 straight or at least be 5 games over .500 they are not worthy to get no more TV time or energy. They are HOT GARAGE right now! Carry the hell on… https://t.co/baFX3fgBgL
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) December 10, 2021
Perkins misspelled garbage in his tweet, but he said he would rather talk about the Sacramento Kings or Houston Rockets than focus on how the Lakers are doing, win or lose.
