As the Lakers lose to the Wolves, LeBron contests the decision on the final shot.
“What the hell do we got replay for?” Sitting back in his chair in the Target Center visitors’ locker room, James remarked. If even the replay makes a mistake, for what purpose is it there? Who is a member of the replay center, exactly? Do we have robots in there that are manufacturing Teslas? Like, what’s the deal?”
James’ wing-to-wing transition basket with 2.3 seconds remaining would have knotted the game at 107 and ignited a ferocious comeback after the Lakers trailed the top team in the West by seven points in the closing minutes. The basket was only awarded two points, though, because referee Brent Barnaky found that James’ toe was on the 3-point line when he made the shot.
The sequence was being examined at the NBA replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey, and James used the next timeout to argue his point to the officials by pointing to a monitor at center court. James reported to the officials that his sneaker was not in contact with the 3-point arc.
“Obviously, it’s a three,” James remarked. “I stepped across the boundary. The distance between my foot’s front and the 3-point line is visible to you. You can make out the wood on the floor as well as the distance between my front foot and the 3-point line. That’s visible to Stevie Wonder, champ.”
After the game, Tony Brothers, the crew chief, gave an explanation to a pool reporter as to why the first 2-point call was upheld.”The play was ruled a 2-point field goal on the floor during live play,” Brothers explained. “After video review, there wasn’t clear and conclusive evidence to overturn it from a 2 to a 3, and that’s why it stood as a 2-point field goal.”
The Lakers were adamantly against it.Lakers coach Darvin Ham stated, “My perspective was that it was a clear-cut three.” “Our guys reenacted it on the sidelines.” It was a solid 3, in our opinion.””You can see the space between his foot and the 3-point line,” Anthony Davis continued. The floor is visible, indicating that his foot was behind the boundary. The floor wouldn’t be seen if it was on the line for a two.”
James poked fun at the qualifications of the replay center staff, suggesting that the decision might have been made by “someone over there eating a ham sandwich.”The Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in the end, and James claimed it reminded him of “five or six” instances from the previous season where he felt the team was unfairly penalized for bad decisions in close games. One such instance was a memorable no-call in which James was obviously smacked by Jason Tatum during a drive to the basket.
James claimed the officials would “look stupid” when the league released its Last Two Minute Report rating the calls from Saturday’s game, much like it did in the matches from the previous season.
With 1.4 seconds remaining, James inbound the ball to the left baseline for the Lakers’ final opportunity to tie the game against the Timberwolves. However, he was doubled by Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert and was unable to get a shot off before the buzzer.James remarked, “I kind of misinterpreted that.” “I’ve encountered that circumstance previously. All I have to do is learn to tell time better. Had I been able to catch it and shoot it immediately.”
James, who is 39 years old, scored 26 points on the night, while Davis recorded a strong 33 points, 17 rebounds, 8 assists, and 4 steals. However, the dismal final seconds marred the impressive effort.After winning the first-ever in-season tournament championship in Las Vegas earlier this month, Los Angeles’ record in the last ten games is at 3-7.
James said, “Man, we’re all trying to figure this out.” How do we describe ourselves? thirty-three games thus far? 17โ16, I believe. Even after thirty-three games, we’re still figuring out rotations, lineups, and who should be on the court when.”