LeBron James and the L.A. Lakers will look to take a 3-1 lead over the Nuggets on Thursday. And while the Purple and Gold have dominated for most of the matchup so far, it seems the franchise isn’t happy with the current state of officiating.
According to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times, the Lakers have reached out to the NBA to express their displeasure with the way LeBron James has been getting foul calls throughout the series.
The Lakers have presented a case to the NBA that their star, LeBron James, is not nearly getting his fair share of free throws even though they are positive the hard-charging forward is getting fouled plenty by the Denver Nuggets in their Western Conference finals playoff series.
“We’re dealing with the fouls through the proper channels with the league,” coach Frank Vogel told the media via videoconference Wednesday after practice. “I think he’s gone to the basket very aggressively, and I’ll just leave it at that.”
The Lakers star is averaging just 3.3 free-throws per game in the Nuggets series thus far, so there may be some merit to the idea that he’s not getting nearly as calls as he’s used to this series.
But is it enough to warrant a complaint to the league? The Lakers are still up 2-1, and it’s unlikely a few more free throws would have changed that.
Instead, the Lakers should be more focused on their defense, which allowed Jokic, Grant, and Murray to drop a combined 76 points.
If they want to win Game 4, and the series, they’ll have to really tighten up on that end of the floor.
But we’ll see how they respond soon enough.
