The Los Angeles Lakers blew a 20-point third-quarter lead and watched helplessly as Jamal Murray drilled a 15-foot step-back jumper at the buzzer to lose a heartbreaking game to the Nuggets on Monday night.
But after a devastating 101-99 loss that stuck the Lakers in a 2-0 playoff hole, NBA icon LeBron James didn’t lament his long-distance miss with 16 seconds left. He didn’t examine why L.A. blew its enormous lead or why the Nuggets made seven consecutive shots down the stretch.
Nope. James went off on the officiating. More specifically, James raged against the NBA’s replay system.
The call that sparked James’ anger occurred in the third quarter when D’Angelo Russell drove to the basket and drew a whistle on Denver’s Michael Porter Jr. The Nuggets challenged the foul call.
After a review, the call was overturned, with replay officials saying that the contact was marginal and did not have a direct impact on the shot.
“I don’t understand what’s going on in the replay center, to be honest,” James said at the tail end of his postgame news conference. “I’ve said it this year, last year, whatever. ‘D-Lo’ clearly gets hit in the face on a drive. What the (expletive) do we have a replay center (for) if it’s going to go like like that (expletive)? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
James wasn’t finished.
“It makes no sense to me. It bothers me,” James said. “I’m sorry to not answer your question, but what (expletive) is that? … Like, what are we doing? … It’s (expletive) stupid.”
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Russell was upset, too.
“There were a few questionable calls … we all saw it,” he said. “We did everything we could do. The game comes down to the last possession, and (Murray) hits the shot. The guy is more than capable of making that shot. You tip your hat. But, like I said, there were a few questionable things that kind of dictated where we were. So, it is what it is.”
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