Kendrick Perkins just had to kick the Lakers fans when they were down. They’re barely coming to terms with being down 3-0 in the first round against the Denver Nuggets and he had to say what everyone had been avoiding lest it manifested. Everyone knows that LeBron James is playing in his 21st season with hopes of at least one more championship. But his shot at a fifth ring is looking farther out of reach as long as the formidable Nikola Jokic is in his way to the Finals.
“Unless [Nikola] Jokic has an early retirement… Lebron [James] will never win another title,” Perkins just had to write on X to rub it in. He posted during the game too, before the Lakers fell 112-105 in Game 3 in their home arena. James had 26 points in 42 minutes while Jokic had 24 points and 15 rebounds. But as Perk and many analysts have pointed out, The Joker is unguardable. The Lakers are now one game away from heading back home.
The Joker has had the Lakers’ number in 11 straight matchups and counting. The Nuggets swept the Lakers in the 2023 Western Conference Finals as well. And listening to analysts and fans, it seems like another sweep is on the way.
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Unless Jokic has an early retirement… Lebron will never win another title
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) April 26, 2024
Game 4 will be in Los Angeles too. The winner will play against the winners of the Suns-Timberwolves series. So far, the odds aren’t looking good and LeBron James is only getting trolled by fans and analysts alike.
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Kendrick Perkins’ nemesis agrees with him
Perkins is currently locked in a hilarious back-and-forth with his TNT equivalents, Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley. Though Barkley called him a roach and punched his face on a sandbag, he might be on Perk’s side when it comes to the Lakers. The Chuckster even broke out the broom to toy with a possible Lakers sweep and claimed, “The King going home in one game.”
This would be a bitter pill to swallow for Shaq. He put his money on his Lakers early on and was still hoping for a turnaround after Game 2. The last time Chuck used a broom to manifest a Lakers sweep in 2020, Shaq broke the broom in retaliation and the Lakers won the championship. They haven’t looked like title contenders since then though. They were eliminated in the first round in 2021 and didn’t make a post-season appearance in 2022. Only Shaq is keeping his fingers crossed for a miracle.
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It’s very difficult to support Bron&Co. now though. Not only are fans subjecting them to the meme treatment, but analysts like Skip Bayless and Rachel Nichols have scathing comments about the team. If the Lakers win on Saturday, the series goes back to Denver for Game 5. But it would be nothing short of a miracle for that to happen.