The Los Angeles Lakers had their hearts broken after a controversial no-call in their overtime loss to the Boston Celtics. During the final play of regulation, LeBron James was clearly fouled by Jayson Tatum, yet no call was made, leading the game to extra time where eventually the Celtics pulled away. Following the game, even both referees and the official NBA referee Twitter account admitted to making a mistake when they failed to blow the whistle.
The pattern of this occurring more than once in recent weeks has left fans and James himself very irritated at officiating calls potentially costing L.A. games and precious playoff points.
Despite this huge blunder though, James managed to maintain a good sense of humor about it as he took to Instagram to jokingly congratulate Tatum for his “block”. It is clear that if things were different and that call was indeed made correctly, LA would be in much better shape for playoffs contention as they would be just 3.5 games out of fourth place instead of being completely outside looking in at 13th overall. While there is still hope that things will turn out well for them this season, it serves as an important reminder that despite being professionals, officials do make mistakes and have immense pressure on them during every single game they referee.
The Lakers organisation needs to now take all their energy and put it into secureing a playoff spot regardless of what happened with officiating calls past or present.