The Los Angeles Lakers have made some high-profile officiating errors currently. The newest was LeBron James clearly fouling Jayson Tatum on a game-winning layup try towards the Boston Celtics on Saturday (which the Final Two Minute Report confirmed the following day), just for the refs to- and swallow the whistle and permit the sport. to enter extra time, the place the Lakers misplaced.
A number of weeks earlier, James was burned by a no-call on one other potential game-winning try in a double-overtime loss to the Dallas Mavericks; The Final Two Minutes report confirmed that Christian Wooden had certainly busted LeBron with the rating tied and the ultimate seconds ticking away on the finish of the primary extra time.
Because of this LeBron was so furious after the misplaced name in Boston. He did not see it as a one time factor. He noticed it, and definitely continues to see it, as a mannequin of the Lakers being disproportionately wronged by these late-game missed calls.
“It constructed,” James mentioned of his frustration. “You guys have seen a few of the video games we have misplaced this yr with missed calls on the finish of the sport. We had a possibility to actually win the sport… I do not perceive what we’re doing. I watch basketball each single day. I watch these video games daily and I do not see it occurring to anybody else. It is simply bizarre.”
It begs the query: Is LeBron proper? Do the Lakers actually get burned extra usually than different groups? Yahoo Sports activities’ Ben Rohrbach determined to research James’ claims by going by means of each Final Two Minute Report this season, and launched his findings on Tuesday.
Seems like LeBron is flawed.
In keeping with Rohrbach’s report, the Lakers have been concerned in 34 foul calls/non-calls within the ultimate two minutes this season, and 21 of them have gone of their favor. That is over 28 different groups. Certainly, solely the Mavericks had extra complete incorrect whistles, with 23.
In different phrases, of the 34 late-game foul calls that affected a Lakers recreation, 61.eight% of them benefited the Lakers. Solely the Clippers, with 63.2%, had extra luck on the finish of the sport.
Kudos to Rohrbach for doing the soiled work of digging by means of these stories. Lots of people, myself included, had been beginning to purchase into LeBron’s case when in actual fact we had been being overshadowed by the high-profile ones which can be more moderen in our reminiscence.