The Lakers stars shook their heads in disappointment at the referee: "We were robbed of a victory"

Despite being ranked 23rd out of 30 teams in the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers had a tenth chance to knock out the top team Boston Celtics away from home. The ball was in the hands of LeBron James when the game was 4 seconds left, the score was 105-105 at that time.

Coach Darvin Ham's tactical run for LeBron hit the middle, approaching the Boston Celtics' basket. Here, he was illegally bumped by Jayson Tatum into his left arm, the same hand that LeBron tried to get to the basket.

Without a whistle, Tatum rebounded and sent the ball up the middle of the field at half-time. Particularly LeBron James immediately reacted to the referees, explaining in all ways that he had been beaten.

Still no changes appear. The referees did not review the situation and the decision not to commit a foul was upheld. At this point, LeBron dropped to his knees on the field and held his head in frustration.

The slow motion that was then shown on the live broadcast confirmed in the eyes of the audience that Jayson Tatum had clearly fouled LeBron James. Unfortunately, that's what the referees don't see.

Not long after the match ended (the victory belonged to the Celtics with a score of 125-121), the match referee confirmed that he had made a mistake when he did not blow Tatum in the above phase.

"There was an unauthorized collision," referee Eric Lewis told reporters after the match. “At that moment we didn't see the foul. The entire referee team missed this situation."

This result brings another bitter defeat of the Lakers related to the management of the game.

Before that, LeBron and his teammates had suffered a few tough defeats against the Dallas Mavericks, Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings. All three involved referee errors and were confirmed in the post-match report.

Of course, the LA players could not be satisfied. Anthony Davis was publicly criticized when he contacted reporters after the game.

“Obviously Tatum made a mistake. Extremely clear," Davis said. “It is unacceptable. And then I'm sure the referees won't be hurt. We were robbed today. It was a very obvious foul."

It's LeBron James' turn, who is ranked 6th in the NBA with an average of 30.2 points/game. He entered the game against the Celtics with just 6.2 free throws per game, the lowest number in the top 10 NBA scorers.

"Very difficult. I don't understand," LeBron James said after finishing the game with 41 points and 15-30 FG. I don't."

James has six penalties against the Celtics today, about a third of the 20 FTAs ​​the Los Angeles Lakers enjoy. This figure for Boston is almost double, reaching 36-39 FT.

To the point that LeBron did not want to say it directly, but he hinted that the Los Angeles Lakers were not in favor of the referee: "I don't see this happening to anyone. Strange".

Coach Darvin Ham rarely mentioned refereeing, but this time he could not sit still and had an interesting answer.

"I always avoid blaming the referees after every game, but it seems to be getting harder and harder to do," the Lakers captain said.

“What I want is uniformity and stability. LeBron is inherently strong and has a lot of collisions. But just because he doesn't punch and doesn't scream doesn't mean LeBron hasn't been fouled."

This tournament features players who are used to playing with a lot of strength, such as the old Shaquille O'Neal era or the current Giannis Antetokounmpo. They use their muscles and withstand impact to complete the attack situation, trying to score points.

I understand that in basketball, sometimes things don't go the way you want them to. But then when we look the other way, some players who often eat or complain when there are collisions are often favored by the referee," added Mr. Darvin Ham.

“The thing that saddens and disappoints me the most is that this game we played really well, one of the best games the team has played since the beginning of the season. All those efforts have not yielded results because the decisions of non-players are unthinkable," James concluded.

This loss brought the Los Angeles Lakers down to 13th in the Western rankings, 24th out of 30 NBA teams with a 23-27 record.

Theoretically, if they had won all four of their past four fouls against Dallas, Philadelphia, Sacramento and Boston, the Lakers could have had a 27-23 record, enough to finish fourth in the West. .