LeBron James and Frank Vogel upset at referee challenge late in Lakers loss to Clips: ‘I think it’s the full BS’

The Los Angeles Lakers Nail-biting lost to their rival clippers Friday, but it came for one of the season’s most controversial calls. Down 103-102 in the last minute, Russell Westbrook He missed the layup that would have given the Lakers the lead. LeBron James He stepped up for the bounce, got it, and tried to pass it back to a teammate.

Clippers defender Robert Covington got in the way. He converted the pass and eventually got the ball, but when he tried to pass it out, the stewards deemed him out of bounds. But Clippers coach Tai Lu disagreed. Challenge the call.

The Clippers won the challenge, but in a somewhat unorthodox way. In fact, Covington has gone off limits. However, officials ruled that James got out of the boundary first when he climbed for his own bounce. The Clippers eventually won a challenge on a call that wasn’t even made. Needless to say, the Lakers weren’t happy with that.

“I strongly disagree with the referee,” coach Frank Vogel said. He said. “I think it’s the full BA. They called the play dead when Covington goes out of bounds. They tried to tell me that, because he was close to that play, LeBron was out of bounds, then the Clippers ball would be…it’s wrong…should have Our ball would be in this situation. Very frustrating.”

James himself did not even know that such calls were subject to review. “This rule has never been explained to me before, and I know every rule in this game,” James said. “I never knew you could challenge a play that wasn’t called on Earth, and that’s basically what happened.”

This is not the first official controversy the Lakers have endured this season. In the November match against Houston RocketsLakers scored two points Kent Basemore Free throws were pulled from the board after officials found that Los Angeles was not actually at the bonus when the foul was made. The Lakers and Clippers have seen recent games set by management, too. On Christmas, 2019, a controversial late game replay found James touched the ball one last time before going out of bounds after being stripped of the ball. Patrick Beverly.

The end result is a 27-32 Lakers record. This loss was particularly devastating as it sealed a head-to-head tiebreak for the Clippers, who had led the Lakers by 2.5 games in the standings. With Anthony Davis Outside, the Lakers are almost certain to play Part #9 versus Part #10 of the role playing now. This would force them to win two games to reach the playoffs as the No. 8 seed. If the current standings were consistent, the Clippers’ loss in Match 7 vs. 8 plus Lakers’ win in Match 9 vs. 10 would pit two Los Angeles teams against each other Some in a winner – take every match in play for seed number 8. If that’s what’s going on, hopefully this game won’t be decided by a controversial call like this one.