National Basketball Association

Draymond Green 'shocked' to see LeBron James looking 'gassed' in play-in

Published Apr. 13, 2023 6:39 p.m. ET

LeBron James led all players with 30 points on 12-for-21 shooting in the Los Angeles Lakers' crucial 108-102 overtime win in their Western Conference play-in game Tuesday that sent the Minnesota Timberwolves packing.

James also accounted for 10.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists in his eye-popping 45-minute performance, marking his first game in which he has played 40-plus minutes since Feb. 4.

But did James show unusual signs of fatigue?

On a recent episode of his podcast, "The Draymond Green Show," the Golden State Warriors' star forward took it upon himself to discuss the outing from James, who also turned the ball over five times and committed five fouls.

"Bron made some very uncharacteristic passes," Green said bluntly. "He looked gassed at times. I very shocked at that. … We'll see how that plays out. … Ultimately, you never gotta question whether LeBron is in shape or not, but he did look a little tired."

On Thursday's "Undisputed," Shannon Sharpe explained why he was put out by Green's critique, all the while not necessarily disagreeing with his remarks about James' tiredness being on full display Tuesday.

"LeBron James is 38 years of age in Year 20," Sharpe said. "What do you think the likelihood [is] that Draymond Green — he just finished Year 11 — in nine years from now, he'll be able to play 45 minutes in a game? Not in a church-league game, not in a YMCA game, not even in a pick-up game at Lifetime Fitness will Draymond Green be able to play 45 minutes in a game. … How many guys have ever been able to play 45 minutes in a game at 38 years of age?"

"The mistakes that [James] started to make were fatigue mistakes. … LeBron James has played almost 1,700 ball games, averaging almost 39 minutes a game — 38.6 minutes. Draymond has played 905 games; he averages less than 30 minutes a ball game, so you can see the difference. I'm not surprised at all because you're asking the man to do something, especially at his age, that we haven't seen before. … I'm surprised that Draymond is surprised given that … a man [who] has played as much regular-season and postseason basketball as [James] has got winded, got fatigued."

James averaged 28.9 points on 50% shooting, 8.3 rebounds and 6.8 assist per game this season in 55 contests. Only once in the past decade has James averaged more points than that (30.3 PPG in 2021-22).

On the other side, James' 55 regular-season games are tied for the second-fewest number of games that he has played in a single season (45 games in 2020-21 and 55 games in 2018-19) in his 20-year career.

Skip Bayless further defended James, saying that Green "stepped across a boundary" in order to sell his podcast.

"It felt out-of-bounds to me because LeBron does not deserve that from Draymond, whether its right or wrong," Bayless said. "What is Draymond thinking? There's just some loyalty here that he is betraying to LeBron."

The Lakers' postseason schedule kicks off Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies (3 p.m. ET). The 7-seed Lakers could end up playing the 6-seed Warriors, which face the Sacramento Kings in the first round, later in the playoffs.

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