The Los Angeles Lakers were not happy with the replay booth in Monday night’s playoff game against the Denver Nuggets. Superstar LeBron James was especially displeased with the way he felt bad replay decisions impacted their 101-99 loss in Game 2 of the series.
“I don’t understand what’s going on in the replay center, to be honest,” James said, who has been vocal in his lack of appreciation for the league’s replay process several times this year.
His specific issue Monday night was with a shooting foul called against Michael Porter, Jr. on D’Angelo Russell in the third quarter, which was overturned after Nuggets coach Michael Malone challenged it.
“D-Lo clearly gets hit in the face on a drive,” James said. “What the f*** do we have a replay center for if it’s going to go [like that]? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
On Tuesday’s episode of NBA Today, ESPN NBA analyst Zach Lowe shared his thoughts on LeBron’s outburst and how much he disagreed with the sentiment, though he agreed on the initial call.
“First of all, it was a foul,” said Lowe. “Second of all, the Lakers have had the biggest free throw differential in the history of the NBA for the last two years running. Third of all, if that’s a thing, I think we need to arrange LeBron to have an internship at the replay center for like a week in the summer. Let’s see how it all works. Get in there, get your hands on it. You try to do it too.”
Lowe then added that the Lakers have no margin for error in this playoff series, and giving up a 20-point lead against the defending NBA champions isn’t going to cut it, replay issues or not.
“Look, the margin for error for the Lakers in this series. The margin for bad luck. The margin for anything is 0,” said Lowe. “10 times in a row, they have lost to this team. They just cannot afford a loss like last night.”
[NBA Today on ESPN]
