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On January 28, the Boston Celtics won a thrilling overtime game against the Los Angeles Lakers following a missed foul call on LeBron James in the dying seconds of the contest.
Sitting in the Lakers locker room following their defeat, Anthony Davis addressed the media, sharing his frustration at a game-changing mistake by the referees, noting how he felt his team had been cheated out of a victory at the TD Garden.
“It was bull***. At the end of the day, it’s unacceptable. And I guarantee nothing’s going to happen to the refs. We got cheated tonight, honestly. It’s a blatant foul. Pat got all ball on Jaylen Brown, called a foul. LeBron gets smacked across his arm. It’s unacceptable, to be honest; they were bad tonight…To miss a call when the ref is sitting right there on the baseline, it’s tough…It wasn’t even a touch foul; I mean, the ball didn’t even move; he clearly smacked his arm,” Davis said.
Until that point, the Celtics and Lakers were neck and neck throughout the contest, with both teams canceling each other’s runs out. But, once the game went to overtime, Jaylen Brown rose to the occasion to help the Celtics register another win on their already impressive record, further infuriating Lakers fans around the world.
LeBron James Was Not Impressed With The Officiating
It would appear that Davis wasn’t the only player to be infuriated with the manner of their loss, as following the game, LeBron James also spent some time discussing the current state of officiating in the NBA.
We had an opportunity to literally win the game. I mean, that’s… This is the second one in the last few weeks for myself. Against Dallas, [we] had an opportunity to win the game if the foul was called. K-Nunn the other day had an opportunity to tie the game if the four-point play is called. I don’t understand. I don’t understand what we’re doing and I watch basketball every single day. I watch these games every single day and I don’t see it happening to nobody else. It’s just weird,” LeBron told CLNS media.
The loss will sting the Lakers on two fronts, first, because they lost to their most fierce rivals in the NBA, and second because they’re fighting for every win they can muster as they try to claw their way into the Western Conference playoff picture.
Nick Nurse Recently Suffered A Similar Officiating Issue
On January 21, the Toronto Raptors were on the receiving end of another officiating controversy, and once again, it came whilst playing the Celtics, as Nick Nurse had a misunderstanding with a game official, which led to an unwanted time-out being taken.
Speaking after their defeat, Nurse shared his conversation with the referee and provided some thoughts on the current state of officiating.
“I asked the referee if I could challenge he said, ‘If you take a timeout you can,’ and I said, ‘Okay, timeout…And then Ed Malloy came over and said, ‘You can’t challenge a jump ball,’ and I said, ‘Okay, no timeout.’ And the original referee, Michael Smith, said, ‘You’re taking your timeout, you called it.’ I said, ‘I asked you if I could challenge.’ So, that was, it turned into being a jump ball strategy timeout, but it was meant to be a challenge timeout… Very disappointing administering of that at the end,” Nurse said.
The Celtics are scheduled to face off against the Brooklyn Nets on February 1, and they will be hoping to continue putting distance between them and the chasing pack in the Eastern Conference.
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