The referees did not point out a clear foul by Tatum on LeBron in the final seconds of regulation time. Boston wins in overtime.
A Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers, the eternal duel between the historical giants of the NBA, the meeting of the 34 rings (17 rings per head, maximum in the League), is always exciting. A confrontation between two colossi awakens passions and sets hearts on fire due to their eternal rivalry, which never stops writing new pages. Beautiful, long-suffering, amazing… and controversial, like the one this morning, which ended with victory in extra time for the locals (125-121) with a scandalous refereeing error that deprived the Angelenos of victory.
Let’s go to the final moments of the last quarter. The Lakers, with a (once again) colossal LeBron James (41 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists) were one step away from winning the Garden after Patrick Beverly placed the +3 from the personal (102-105) in the absence of 14 seconds. The last Celtic play ended up in the hands of Horford, who from the corner launched a bad triple whose rebound ended up in the hands of Brown: basket and additional after a foul by Beverly. The forward did not miss: draw. Ball for the visitors… And trouble broke out.
LeBron James made his traditional and almost unstoppable drive to the basket from the left. Against several defenders, the King managed to get up to score a layup… until Tatum, in an attempt to stop his rival, hit LeBron’s arm with his hand, preventing him from converting the two points. The referees did not signal anything and time expired to the heartbroken outrage of James, of all the Lakers. In the period between periods, Beverly approached one of the referees with a camera to show him his mistake and was penalized with a technique. In overtime, the Celtics finished off some Angelenos who were already greatly overwhelmed by the situation.
LeBron James absolutely fuming that he didn't get the foul call at the end of Lakers-Celtics 😳pic.twitter.com/vuTiEHEBJh
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) January 29, 2023
“I guarantee you that if the refs start getting fined for uncalled fouls, they’d be better off,” said Anthony Davis, who was playing his second game after a long absence due to injury. “They ripped us off tonight. ” “I don’t understand. I don’t understand, “said LeBron, the main person affected, about how the arbitration with the Lakers had been. The forward also recalled the also controversial matches against Dallas and Sacramento in recent weeks in which the referees also did not penalize crucial fouls in the finals: ” I don’t see it happening to other teams.”
Patrick Beverly needed to let the referee know that they missed a call. 😂
📸:@ActionNetworkHQ pic.twitter.com/w1uVx6STTM
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 29, 2023
“Losing between three and five games because of refereeing errors is really tough,” continued Dennis Schroder. “I don’t want to see another (referee) report from the last two minutes. It doesn’t do anyone any good,” said Darvin Ham, coach of the Lakers, who saw how after the duel ended, the NBA issued a statement in which Eric Lewis, one of the referees, confirmed the error: ” There was contact . At that time, during the game, we didn’t see a foul. We missed the play ”. There is trouble.
In a pool report from tonight’s game, referee Eric Lewis admitted the officials missed a call at the end of regulation that would have awarded LeBron James potential game-winning free throws: pic.twitter.com/fFD8Gv70zm
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 29, 2023
