The Los Angeles Lakers could have been partying in the locker room tonight. Not only could they have celebrated a win against a top-tier team in the Philadelphia 76ers, they also could have celebrated historic achievements by both LeBron James and Russell Westbrook. Alas, that didn’t happen and the blame fell on Russ.
In the loss to the 76ers, Russ decided to try and score the game-winning basket by isoing on Joel Embiid even when the Lakers had 2 timeouts left and LeBron James was having a special offensive night.
I WANT RUSSELL WESTBROOK ARRESTED IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/yCpHhKcLDw
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) January 16, 2023
He didn’t even get a shot up but has explained that there was a no-call on a foul by Embiid who held his arm down on the possession.
Russell Westbrook explained in the postgame locker room that he was attempting to shoot the game-winning shot and had his arm pulled down by Joel Embiid – a foul that was not called, he thinks. “I couldn’t get my hand up to shoot because he was grabbing it,” Westbrook said.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 16, 2023
The historic achievements that the players failed to celebrate were LeBron scoring his 38,000th point in the NBA and Russ becoming the all-time leader in triple-doubles off the bench. This loss puts the Lakers at 19-24, 3 games behind the 6th-seeded Los Angeles Clippers.
Did The Referees Cost The Lakers Another Game?
There was a lot of controversy in the Lakers’ 2OT loss against the Mavericks when the referees missed some crucial late calls. While out of 7 missed calls, 5 came against the Mavericks, the 2 that came against the Lakers were in game-clinching moments. Goes to show that refereeing in the NBA still has a lot of room for improvement.
If Westbrook was fouled, the referees have ruined the outcome of yet another game. It doesn’t change the fact that the play was a bad one to make from Russ, and coach Darvin Ham should have taken a timeout and drawn a play for the squad. No point in crying over spilled milk, so the Lakers need to not complain and move on from this brutal loss.
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