Losing to the Denver Nuggets with a score of 101-99 with Jamal Murray’s game-winner buzzer-beater, the Los Angeles Lakers players and coaching staff expressed regret. They lost a 20-point lead at the beginning of the third quarter and a 6-point lead with about 3 minutes left in the game.

Perhaps the Lakers collective can only blame themselves. However, some players have directed criticism at others, specifically the referees. LeBron James is one of these, publicly expressing his dissatisfaction with the match management of the referees and the NBA Replay Center.

“Honestly, I don’t know what they do at the Replay Center anymore,” James frankly shared. “We had a player who was hit in the face. They reviewed and called it not a mistake, so what do we have a Replay Center to do with decisions like that? I do not understand”

LeBron specifically pointed out the shot where D’Angelo Russell was hit in the face by Michael Porter Jr. on the Denver Nuggets side after a breakthrough. Initially, the referee blew the whistle and blew the Denver striker.

But after reviewing the situation through a slow camera angle, the referees even decided that this was not a foul but just a natural arm swing.

No penalty was awarded as the referee reversed Porter Jr.’s foul.

After the match D’Angelo Russell did not contact the media but shared about this situation on social networks: ” It was a foul that we all saw, clearly on national television.”

The Los Angeles Lakers led 79-69 when the above ball occurred, with 39.5 seconds left in the third quarter. Russell’s two free throws were withdrawn, almost destroying D’Lo’s chances of taking points because he has a very good free throw success rate.

It was these two points that became the Lakers’ complaint because, in the end, they lost by exactly 2 points thanks to Jamal Murray’s buzzer-beater.

Not only talking about his match, LeBron James also mentioned the referee’s work in Game 2 between the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks. Here, the referee seemed to have overlooked two more obvious situations including a shirt-pulling phase and a refusal to let the 76ers call a time-out.

“Everything doesn’t make sense at all and it makes me very upset. And we also saw what happened in the Sixers – Knicks game, right? What are we doing here anyway? “LeBron James said.

Immediately after finishing speaking, James stood up and left the press conference. Anthony Davis then did the same thing when he left after another question related to Jamal Murray.

LeBron James had 26 points with 12 assists and 8 rebounds, but the Lakers captain missed an extremely empty 3-point shot right before Jamal Murray threw the game-winner. 

Besides the “king”, Anthony Davis scored 32 points and 11 rebounds with 14-19 FG but was completely “hungry for points” in the 4th quarter. Part of the reason for this comes from the foul trouble of the big man born in 1993.

Anthony Davis received his fourth personal foul (an offensive foul) with 2 minutes and 41 seconds left in the third quarter, forcing coach Darvin Ham to take him out. 

In the fourth quarter, Davis was also much more “sneaky” when defending and was psychologically affected. He only finished 1 more time and got no points.

“There were times when we didn’t know what we were doing both offensively and defensively. And it was those situations that caused the team to lose the match,” Davis said. “Now we have to win Game 3, that’s the only goal for me and the team. Just simple as that”.

D’Angelo Russell also agreed with AD, thinking that the Lakers did well most of the time and needed to improve that: “During the whole match, I felt like we would win. A little adjustment will help us be more ready for Game 3.”

“In the end, my teammates and I have to control what we can do, try not to let things beyond our control (referring to the referee – reporter) affect the outcome of the match anymore.”

Through the first two matches of the 2024 NBA Playoffs round 1 series, the Denver Nuggets successfully defended home-field advantage. 

Now it’s time for the series to move to two consecutive matches on the field of the Los Angeles Lakers, where the series could become tense and unpredictable if the LA team does what Denver did.

“They defended their home field, now it’s our turn. Game 3 will be the decisive match ” LeBron James said. “I know how I and my teammates can improve, so my focus will be completely on the next match.”

Game 3 of the series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets will take place at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 27 at Crypto.com Arena, the Lakers’ home stadium.