The Los Angeles Lakers had a golden opportunity to pick up what would have been their best and signature win of the 2022-23 NBA season on the road against the Boston Celtics on Saturday night, but they instead left Boston with a 125-121 loss in overtime.
However, there was a lot of controversy in this game, especially at the end of regulation.
After Jaylen Brown made a free-throw following a made basket in which he was fouled on, tying the game at 105, LeBron James took an inbounds pass out of a timeout and drove hard to the basket for the Lakers.
James was met with contact by the Celtics’ defenders, but no call was given to Los Angeles, resulting in the game going to overtime.
The entire Lakers sideline was infuriated by the fact that no foul was called in favor of James after Brown received a call at the other end of the floor previously and LeBron James was extremely frustrated with the officials at the end of regulation.
During the media timeout ahead of the start of overtime, Lakers’ guard Patrick Beverley confronted Crew Chief Eric Lewis with a camera to point out the fact that his teammate was fouled and Lewis immediately gave Beverley a technical foul, resulting in the Celtics hitting a free-throw at the start of overtime before the ball was even tipped.
Following this tough loss, Lewis commented on the officials not calling a foul at the end of regulation in favor of LeBron James to pool reporter Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe.
When asked why there was no foul call on the final play of regulation and what he saw in the play, Lewis stated that while there was contact, the officials did not see it at the time of the play, simply stating that “the crew missed the play.”
“I don’t get it,” James said to reporters after the game in the team’s locker room in regards to the no-call. “I don't get it. I’m attacking the paint just as much as any of the other guys in this league that are shooting double-digit free-throws a night. I just don’t get it, I don’t understand.”
Anthony Davis was not shy about offering his comments on the officials after the game either, using some choice words and saying the fact that the officials did not call anything is “unacceptable.”
The Lakers are now 23-27 on the season following this loss and they are two full games behind the 10-seed in the Western Conference now. They will play their next game on Monday night on the road against Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets.
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