The Lakers got away with a thrilling 106-103 win against the Suns, which eliminated them from the In-Season Tournament, but the game wasn’t without controversy.
Late in the game, Austin Reaves lost possession and it looked as though it should have been a turnover, but the Lakers received a timeout instead that retained the ball.
At this stage, LA were clinging onto a two-point lead.
LeBron James was asked about the play after the game.
“I was able to hit AR. And I felt [Devin Booker] kind of pushed up on a little bit, kind of made AR stumble,” LeBron said. “As soon as I seen AR start to stumble a little bit, I started to make the notion and the voice to the referee that was closest to me for a timeout.
“After that … I heard the commotion. The ball was loose, whatever the case may be,” James said. “But my direction was right towards the referee to get us a timeout for sure.”
Suns veteran All-Star Kevin Durant didn’t want to blame the loss on that one play.
“I couldn’t really see the ball being out,” Durant said. “I still thought he had it. But then looked at the replay, it was out a little bit. But that’s not the game, that’s one play. It’s a 48-minute game and like I don’t like complaining about calls.”
Durant’s teammate, Devin Booker, wasn’t quite as understanding and even put an Instagram story up showing the missed call.
Devin Booker’s IG Story. pic.twitter.com/Coz1J25oJ0
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) December 6, 2023
“The whole world seen it,” said Booker. “I just got off social media and other players around the league seen it. So it is what it is. Refs miss calls sometimes. But when they’re a bit that obvious it’s tough.”
Phoenix coach Frank Vogel was very critical of the referees as well.
“You can’t call a timeout on a loose ball,” Vogel said. “You can’t do it. So if the whistle blows, I don’t know why — everything in the league is reviewable — I don’t know why that can’t be reviewable. I know it’s not a foul or an out of bounds, which is like a challenge.
“But at any point in the game the whistle blows inadvertently, the ref can huddle up and say ‘inadvertent whistle.’ Where were we at during the game? And that did not happen. Extremely disappointing.”