Kevin Durant believes Lakers will conquer the In-Season Tournament: ‘It’s set up for them to win’

There has been no lack of excitement in the In-Season Tournament’s quarterfinal clashes this week, as the Lakers recently beat the Suns after a very controversial end of the match. Despite the polemic, Kevin Durant doesn’t want to blame anyone for the defeat and actually wishes the Los Angeles squad the best in their title run.

With only seconds left to the final buzzer, NBA officials granted Austin Reaves a timeout as he was falling to the ground and Phoenix was in the middle of stealing the ball and tying the contest.

Despite the discussions that came after the controversial decision from the referees, the Suns superstar believes the Los Angeles squad have what it takes to lift the first-ever NBA cup trophy.

Kevin Durant believes the Lakers are set up to win the NBA In-Season Tournament. 👀 pic.twitter.com/YX9BsuAmIN

— theScore (@theScore) December 6, 2023

However, the press wanted answers after the polemic timeout, and LeBron James was the first to show his face. “I was able to hit AR. And I felt [Devin Booker] kind of pushed up on a little bit, kind of made AR stumble,” he explained after the match. “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,” he added. “But my direction was right towards the referee to get us a timeout for sure.”

Devin Booker, who ended the game with 21 points, took his opinions to social media and shared a video that showed the sequence before the timeout was called. When attending the press, the Suns guard was very outspoken about his displeasure.

“The whole world seen it,” he claimed. “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.”

Both coaches shared opposite views on the referee’s decision and discussed openly in the postgame interviews

The first to defend his team and voice his opinion was Phoenix head coach Frank Vogel, who was very clear on why the NBA officials frustrated him. He wondered why the referees decided not to take another look at the play in real time.

“I mean it’s a loose ball, and the ball’s out, and they call timeout on loose ball,” claimed the Suns trainer. “You can’t call timeout on loose ball. Can’t do it. … Everything in the league is reviewable. I don’t know why that can’t be reviewable … extremely disappointed.”

In the video above, take a look at the controversial call and judge it yourselves. Lakers coach Darvin Ham, on one side, strongly believes the officials made the right decision and explained the sequence of what went down.

“That’s why we have three officials and that’s why I coach: to be in that type of position,” the L.A. trainer explained. “Right when they were about to dislodge the ball, we [Ham and James] both were trying to call it, and Tom Washington was standing right there. So he granted the timeout, and that’s pretty much it from my vantage point.”