DENVER — After their heartbreaking 101-99 loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series on Monday night, the Lakers criticized the officiating.
Lakers star LeBron James was the most direct with his comments.
“I don’t understand what’s going on in the replay center, to be honest,” James said. “[D’Angelo Russell] clearly gets hit in the face on a drive. What the (expletive) do we have a replay center for if it’s going to go [like that]. It doesn’t make sense to me.”
The play James appeared to be referring to was when Michael Porter Jr. was assessed a foul for hitting Russell across the face on a drive to the basket with 40 seconds left in the third quarter.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone challenged the call and won, giving the Nuggets the ball with the Lakers leading 79-69 late in the third instead of Russell getting a pair of free throws.
Russell posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) postgame: “That’s a foul we all saw it on national television.”
The Lakers’ complaints came on the same night when a Philadelphia 76ers spokesperson told ESPN’s Tim Bontemps that the 76ers plan to file a grievance with the league over the officiating in the first two games of their first-round series after Philadelphia’s 104-101 loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night.
“It makes no sense to me,” James said. “It bothers me. … That (expletive) it like … And then I just saw what happened with the Sixers-Knicks game too. Like, what are we doing? … It’s (expletive) stupid.”
The Nuggets outscored the Lakers 32-20 in the fourth quarter to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series after Jamal Murray hit a 15-foot step-back jumper at the buzzer over Anthony Davis’ outstretched right arm.
The Lakers led 68-48 early in the third before getting stunned by the Nuggets, who outscored the visitors 53-31 over the final 22 minutes.
The Lakers, who averaged 24.2 free-throw attempts during the regular season…
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