The Los Angeles Lakers shockingly blew a 20-point lead to lose Game 2 of their first-round series against the Denver Nuggets. While Jamal Murray’s incredible game-winner at the buzzer for the Nuggets dominated the headlines, another big talking point was the officiating. The Lakers were unhappy with the referees and D’Angelo Russell was one of the players to call them out after the game.
“I like where we were at, like the chance we gave ourselves,” Russell said. “Few questionable calls that really dictated a lot of movements forward. So, it is what it is, we all saw it.”
(starts at 20:11 mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcdMsZqZA3o
The Lakers felt aggrieved about some decisions, with their biggest complaint being about a foul on Russell by Michael Porter Jr. late in the third quarter, which was overturned on review. You can see the clip below, where Porter Jr. hits the 28-year-old.
Michael Porter Jr. hit D'Angelo Russell in the face. MPJ was called for a foul which was then challenged.
Nuggets won the challenge.
Thought? 🤔pic.twitter.com/X01ufZXX4g
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 23, 2024
At the time, it was thought that Nuggets head coach, Michael Malone, had just wasted a challenge, but crew chief Scott Foster announced that soon after that it was successful. The officials felt the contact was “marginal” and the Lakers were not happy.
The fact that the final score was 101-99 only made matters worse, as the Lakers felt they clearly should have gotten two free throws there. Russell, who had one of his best playoff games here with 23 points, 3 rebounds, and 6 assists, even took to X afterward to make it clear that it was a foul.
“That’s a foul we all saw it on national television.”
https://twitter.com/Dloading/status/1782647461481173319
The Lakers reportedly also felt that if that was marginal contact on Russell, then LeBron James should not have been called for a foul on Murray late in the game, as per ESPN.
“A Lakers source told ESPN that James’ foul on Murray with 57.1 seconds left, which rewarded the Nuggets guard two free throws that tied the game 97-97, also could be considered ‘marginal contact.'”
This was the incident that the Lakers were referring to.
Dlo getting smacked across the face = overturned/no foul ❌
Murray touch foul in a 2 point game with a minute left = ✅
Darvin Ham = too braindead to challenge pic.twitter.com/gkLWzq8tIU
— 🎭 (@MaskedInLA) April 23, 2024
As that X account pointed out, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham didn’t challenge that call. Ham even had two timeouts left, so this wasn’t a case of the Lakers being at risk of having none if the challenge was unsuccessful. If they felt it was marginal, they should have challenged it, and I do think the call would have been overturned.
LeBron James Also Went Off On The Referees
While Russell was clearly frustrated there, he wasn’t as angry after that game as LeBron was. James slammed the referees for overturning that foul on Russell.
“I don’t understand what’s going on in the replay center, to be honest. What f— do we have a replay center for? It makes no sense to me… What are we doing?”
While I get that some calls went against the Lakers here, I don’t like this reaction after the game. LA led by 20 points at one stage in the third quarter and they didn’t blow that advantage because of the referees.
This wasn’t a case where just a string of decisions went in the Nuggets’ favor which led to that lead disappearing. A couple of them did but even with that, the Lakers should have won. They only have themselves to blame for being down 0-2 in this series.
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