Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has sounded off at the NBA’s replay center after a controversial call in Tuesday’s Game 2 loss to the Denver Nuggets. James, who had 26 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds in the defeat, was highly critical of a successful Nuggets challenge on a shooting foul called against Michael Porter Jr. on D’Angelo Russell late in the third quarter.
Replays seemed to show Porter Jr. swiping at Russell’s face but crew chief Scott Foster later announced over the public address system that the call had been overturned as the contact was ruled to be “marginal”. Russell himself was clearly infuriated by the call, writing on Twitter after the game, “That’s a foul we all saw it on national television”, and James agreed.
“I don’t understand what’s going on in the replay center, to be honest,” the Lakers forward said. “D-Lo clearly gets hit in the face on a drive. What the f*** do we have a replay center for if it’s going to go [like that]? It doesn’t make sense to me.
“It bothers me … and then I just saw what happened with the Sixers-Knicks game, too. Like, what are we doing?”
Emotions were at a high after the Lakers blew a 20-point lead against the Nuggets, who won Game 2 on the back of a Jamal Murray buzzer beater to take a 2-0 series lead. Anthony Davis’ post-game media availability lasted four minutes but ended abruptly when he was asked what happened on the final play.
“Jamal Murray made a shot,” he flatly said, putting the mic down and walking out of the room without any further comment.
Meanwhile, Lakers coach Darvin Ham said there were “some tough calls” and “some tough non-calls”.
“But you can’t use any of that as an excuse,” he added. “You’ve got go out there and be ready to make plays whether the whistle gets blown or not.
“… It’s getting real tricky — you go through the season, games being officiated one way, and then you get to the playoffs, and I guess it’s left up to the interpretation of the three individual guys that’s doing the job out there.”
