The lead official in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 125-121 overtime defeat to the Boston Celtics on Saturday acknowledged there was a missed shooting foul by Jayson Tatum on LeBron James in the waning seconds of regulation, leaving L.A. furious over yet another loss attributed to officiating.
When James went to the basket with 4.0 seconds left and the score knotted, the Lakers had a fantastic chance to defeat the league-leading Celtics. When he attempted a left-handed layup and Tatum hit him on the arm, he missed the shot just as the shot clock ran out.
James grabbed the arm of the referee standing along the baseline as soon as he turned to him to point out the point of contact. He bounced around, smacked the hardwood, placed his hands over his head in shock, and then, ultimately, collapsed to his knees in the paint and buried his head in his arms on the floor.
After the game, crew chief Eric Lewis told a pool reporter that “there was touch.” “We did not observe a foul at the time or throughout the game. The cast was not at the play.”
The admission brought to mind recent defeats to Dallas, Philadelphia, and Sacramento when calls did not go in their favour, and it was the latest in what the Lakers perceive as a string of bad refereeing in their games.
He got his ass in. Clearly. Definitely,” Anthony Davis stated. It’s a bunch of s—-. That is not acceptable. Additionally, I promise that nothing will happen to the referees. Sincerly, tonight we were duped. It’s an obvious foul. To be honest, that is unacceptable. Refs were poor. Tonight, they were terrible. James averaged 6.2 free throw attempts per game, the fewest of any of the top eight scorers in the league, and he entered the game sixth in the league in scoring with 30.2 points per game.
James finished with 41 points on 15-for-30 shooting and noted, “It’s hard. “It eludes me. I attack the paint as frequently as any player in this league who averages more than ten free throws a game, so I don’t get it. I fail to comprehend it.”
Against the Celtics, James tried six free throws and L.A. as a team made 20 of them. With a 34-for-39 record, the Celtics more than quadrupled that number. He claimed that the poor officiating has created the impression that his squad is being targeted.
He remarked, “I watch basketball every single day. “I watch sports every day. I don’t anticipate it occurring to anyone else. It’s simply strange.”
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Darvin Ham, the head coach of the Lakers, often refrains from criticising the officials’ work, but he was unable to ignore their influence on Saturday’s result.
As much as you might try, Ham remarked, “it’s getting harder not to blame the officials.” “The world’s top player is unable to receive a call. It’s incredible.”
Ham urged the officials to be more consistent, pointing out how Jaylen Brown was given a and-1 free throw while Patrick Beverley was called for a foul on the play just before James’ last-second drive. He said that James’ physical prowess and strength are against him.
According to Ham, “[he] plays a powerful, physical style of basketball and just because he doesn’t flop, fall, or scream while he’s shooting the ball, like I see a tonne of other guys doing, he gets fined for it. “With Giannis [Antetokounmpo], I observed the same thing. When I was a player during the Shaq [O’Neal] era, I observed the same thing. Sometimes it doesn’t work out for the men who play physically and really try to focus on finishing plays. Then you notice other men whining after every shot or every bump, and they are the ones receiving whistles.”
The frustrated Lakers listed a number of improvements that might be done to the officiating. Ham recommended adding four officials or modifying the challenge rule so that coaches could use it many times if they were successful. When Davis was called for a foul on Tatum with 3:41 left in the fourth quarter and the Lakers were up 96-95, Ham requested a challenge. Despite the fact that the challenge was successful and the decision was reversed, Ham was unable to contest James’ layup attempt at the buzzer.
Davis demanded that the officials be held more accountable.
I promise it would be much better if the referees started receiving fines for missed calls, Davis remarked. But nothing will be taken action.
Lewis also assessed two technical fouls against the Lakers, one each against Dennis Schroder and Patrick Beverley for using a courtside photographer’s camera to show digital proof of Tatum’s contact with James at the conclusion of the fourth quarter. Schroder’s technical foul was assessed in the third quarter for collapsing to the floor in response to the call. Beverley’s technical foul was assessed at the start of overtime.
The Beverley tech’s responses to resentment over a non-call, according to Lewis’ pool report, were improper.
In the first minute of overtime, Boston outscored Los Angeles 8-2 and never looked back, securing the victory.
Regarding the lingering effects of the missed call, Davis observed, “You’re still thinking about that.” “To be honest, you shouldn’t even be in that circumstance. You shouldn’t be playing over your scheduled time.”
The Lakers are now 23-27 and ranked 13th in the Western Conference after the loss. A 27-23 record would place them at No. 4 in the West if they won the four most recent games they contested the officials’ calls in against Dallas, Philadelphia, Sacramento, and Boston.
James remarked, “It’s one of the finest games we’ve played all year, and for it to depend on someone else’s judgement or lack thereof is absurd. “That is absurd.”
