Getty LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kevin Durant #35 of the Phoenix Suns.
The NBA’s In-Season Tournament has not lacked excitement, and the end of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 106-103 win in their quarterfinal matchup against the Phoenix Suns certainly delivered.
A back-and-forth contest that saw 14 lead changes and the Lakers squandered a 15-point lead ended somewhat controversially. Officials granted Austin Reaves a timeout as he was falling to the ground, the Lakers clinging to a two-point lead.
The Ball looked to be loose in which case the ball should have gone back to the Suns.
“I was able to hit AR. And I felt [Devin Booker] kind of pushed up on a little bit, kind of made AR stumble,” LeBron James said after the game via NBA.com on December 5. “As soon as I seen AR start to stumble a little bit, I started to make the notion and the voice to the referee that was closest to me for a timeout.”
“After that … I heard the commotion. The ball was loose, whatever the case may be,” James said. “But my direction was right towards the referee to get us a timeout for sure.”
Booker finished the game with 21 points, seven of which came in the final frame. He took to social media to express his opinion, sharing a clip of the sequence with a thinking emoji on his Instagram. Booker was vocal about his displeasure with the call during his postgame media availability.
Devin Booker’s IG Story.
“The whole world seen it,” said Booker. “I just got off social media and other players around the league seen it. So it is what it is. Refs miss calls sometimes. But when they’re a bit that obvious it’s tough.”
Booker’s teammate, Kevin Durant, didn’t want to put all the blame on that play, though.
“I couldn’t really see the ball being out,” Durant said. “I still thought he had it. But then looked at the replay, it was out a little bit. But that’s not the game, that’s one play. It’s a 48-minute game and like I don’t like complaining about calls.”
Booker also addressed his potential uncalled foul on Reaves as he and Durant went for the double team.
“I stopped, my hands are back, Reeves tried to draw a foul,” said Booker, who had two fouls called against him in the game. “And once we bumped into each other, I think he was trying to get the ball back since then. That’s a good three four five seconds to build up before LeBron grabbed the referee and called the timeout.”
Durant kept the onus on the players, though.
“[The] ref ain’t gonna get it right all the time,” Durant said. “Sometimes it’s on us to play through all of that stuff and not worry about putting the game in the ref hands. … I mean it is what it is though. We can’t put ourselves in that position.”
Darvin Ham, Frank Vogel on Opposite Sides
Suns head coach Frank Vogel voiced his frustration after the game too. He wondered why officials couldn’t take another look at such a play in real time.
“I mean it’s a loose ball, and the ball’s out, and they call timeout on loose ball,” Vogel said. “You can’t call timeout on loose ball. Can’t do it. … Everything in the league is reviewable. I don’t know why that can’t be reviewable … extremely disappointed.”
The ball was DEFINITELY loose. I don’t see how the referees grant a timeout here.
“That’s why we have three officials and that’s why I coach: to be in that type of position,” Lakers head coach Darvin Ham said. “Right when they were about to dislodge the ball, we [Ham and James] both were trying to call it, and Tom Washington was standing right there. So he granted the timeout, and that’s pretty much it from my vantage point.”
Game Officials Double Down on Call
Jovan Buha of The Athletic shared the account of the pool report with referee Josh Tiven after the game. Tiven supported the call on the floor. He also said that Reaves clearly still had possession of the ball when the Lakers called for the timeout.
“During live play the official felt that LA still had possession of the ball when LeBron James requested the timeout,” Tiven said, per the report. “Through postgame video review in slow motion replay, we did see that Austin Reaves had his left hand on the ball while it’s pinned against his left leg, which does constitute control.”
That probably won’t sit well with Suns head coach Frank Vogel.
The two teams will meet two more times during the regular season. First on January 11 and then again on February 25 with the Suns hosting the first matchup and the Lakers the second.