Los Angeles Lakers lost bitterly to rival Celtics because of controversy related to referees
Holding a camera he had just borrowed from a reporter on the sidelines, Patrick Beverley walked over to referee Eric Lewis to continue explaining the situation at the end of the fourth half.
LeBron James broke into the basket, rushing into the place where there were four green shirt silhouettes waiting. The three players defended well, but Jayson Tatum was the one who fouled LeBron's hand directly.
This is what anyone can see in slow motion, which is continuously replayed by ESPN. Unfortunately, it's not what the referee saw. They assumed that no one made a mistake and the fourth half ended in a draw.
Although the match then continued with an extra time and the Los Angeles Lakers received a final defeat with a score of 125-121, but the development of OT could not erase what appeared at the end of the 4th half.
"We don't want to criticize the referee, but that's getting harder and harder for our team," said Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham.
Even Patrick Beverley was penalized for a technical error when he showed the camera to the referee, a decision that is being called by the NBA Twitter community "the craziest technical error since Tim Duncan's smile on the bench. ".
For the Boston Celtics, Jaylen Brown completed the situation and-1 at the end of the 4th half to bring the game into extra time. Then he alone scored 11 points at OT to bring home the victory. The whole game Brown scored 37 points and 9 rebounds.
Jayson Tatum is right next door with 30 points, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 block. Not to be missed Malcolm Brogdon, the defender scored 26 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists for Boston this match.
As for the Los Angeles Lakers, the leader is still a familiar name - LeBron James. "King" ended the game with 41 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists, continuing to closely follow Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record.
However, everything did not erase the disappointment that James felt after the game: "I don't understand. I don't understand what I'm doing and what's wrong with me even though my teammates and I still play basketball and watch basketball every day. I don't see this happening to anyone but us. That's weird."
In addition to LeBron James, today was a bad day for the familiar pillars. Dennis Schroder had 13 points and didn't throw in any 3-pointers. Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook only have a total of 10-29 FG.
However, they had the unexpected shine of Patrick Beverley in the last minute. This defender alone scored 5 points to put the Lakers in the lead twice. But then he also missed the opportunity to seal the victory for the LA team on the free-throw line.
Beverley's technical error helped the Boston Celtics get a score at the beginning of the OT to rise. From there they went straight to the final victory.
The match is over, but the discussion around the referee's decision will certainly appear more in the next few days.
In their next outing, both teams will face the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center in turn. The Los Angeles Lakers will play at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, January 31, and the Celtics will play on Thursday morning, February 2.
