Anthony Davis says what even NBA admits: Lakers were ‘cheated’ by refs on ‘bulls---’ call

Jan 29, 2023 - 5:39 AM
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Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images




The Lakers’ 125-121 loss to the Boston Celtics on Saturday night was the third time they’ve been screwed on a wrong call late this season, and the second that LeBron James has come away without a whistle that should have been blown on a potential game-winner.

Earlier this month, the NBA admitted that Kendrick Nunn should have gone to the line for game-tying free throws in a loss to the Sacramento Kings, just days after a previous Last Two Minute Report acknowledged that James should have gone to the line for potentially game-winning free throws in the first overtime of an eventual loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

And according to multiple media reports, the league has already admitted that James should have gotten the same opportunity tonight after Jayson Tatum very obviously slapped his wrist on a potential game-winning layup right in front of a referee as time expired:

I mean... yeah:

The referees themselves even admitted the error immediately after the game:

Those summaries above don’t even include the time when the league doubled down, claiming Russell Westbrook wasn’t fouled on a game-winning attempt that saw Joel Embiid fully hold onto his wrist.

And to some degree: Who cares? These apologies and acknowledgments don’t help the Lakers. The NBA can say “our bad” as many times as it wants, but it won’t change that the Lakers now have three of their 27 losses due to similar missed calls in crunch time.

Understandably, the team is pissed off about it, with Anthony Davis the most vocal of anyone:

Davis wasn’t the only member of the Lakers to speak out, however. LeBron himself was a bit more muted postgame, but no clearly less seething internally based on both his words and his reactions on the floor:

Darvin Ham told reporters that it’s “amazing” that “the best player on earth can’t get a call” in his own postgame remarks to the assembled press:

Dennis Schröder sounded off on Instagram:

Even Big Game James Worthy was going off on the referees on the local postgame show:

The NBA is going to admit again that it got this one wrong tomorrow, but that will be cold comfort for the Lakers, who will once again have to try and put a victory that was stolen away from them behind them as they continue their east coast road trip against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday.








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