LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers got absolutely screwed in their overtime loss to the Boston Celtics on Saturday night. The referees themselves admitted it.
James drove to the rim as time expired and was hit on the arm by Jayson Tatum who was attempting to block James’s shot. The no-call caused a dramatic reaction from James and several of his teammates, including Patrick Beverley who was ejected in memeable fashion.
Understandably, the team had comments after the game on the incident, which would have given James the opportunity to take free-throws to go ahead.
Lakers comment on Jayson Tatum no-call foul against LeBron James
James, of course, made his thoughts known with his body language but spoke about it after the game as well.
“You saw my reaction,” James said, and shook his head, silent, when he was offered the opportunity to talk about the controversial call.
“It’s challenging. I don’t get it. Um, I don’t get it. I’m attacking the paint just as much as any of the other guys in this league that’s shooting double-digit free-throws a night. And um, you know, I don’t get it. I don’t understand.”
“I don’t get into [talking to the league about missed calls], our organization decide they wanna do that, that’s cool. But I don’t, it ain’t gon’ change sh–,” James said.
Asked if it was something that has been building, here’s what James said:
“Nah, it’s been building. It’s been building, and that’s, I mean you guys [have] seen some of the games we missed this year on late-game missed calls. We had an opportunity to literally, you know, win the game, I mean that’s, you know, I had the second one in the last few weeks for myself against Dallas I had the 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. You know, I, 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, it’s just weird.”
Head coach Darvin Ham, according to Dave McMenamin said, ““As much as you try not to put it on officiating, it’s becoming increasingly difficult”
And finally, Anthony Davis was bold in his critique of the officiating, too.
“It’s bullsh–. At the end of the day, it’s unacceptable. And I guarantee nothing will happen to the refs. We got cheated tonight, honestly,” Anthony Davis said.
Unhappy reaction for the Lakers, which is generally pretty understandable on what was a clear foul.