LeBron James frustrated with refs: ‘What the f— do we have a replay center for?’

For a minute there, we actually thought that the Lakers were finally going to win a game against the Nuggets, but Jamal Murray‘s clutch play made sure the reigning champs would only extend their streak to 10 games. After the heartbreaking 101-99 defeat in Game 2 of this first-round playoff series, LeBron James blamed the officials. 

During his postgame comments on Monday, the superstar sounded off on the refs, especially after the last play of the match. “I don’t understand what’s going on in the replay center, to be honest,” the veteran shared.

This wasn’t the first time this campaign that he criticises the league’s replay process. He specifically took issue last night with a shooting foul against rival Michael Porter Jr. on D’Angelo Russell, but it was ruled out and overturned after Denver‘s coach Michael Malone challenged the call.

"What the f*** do we have a replay center for? It doesn't make sense to me."

LeBron really walked out of the post-game press conference 👀 pic.twitter.com/Ph14M27RbD

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) April 23, 2024

“D-Lo clearly gets hit in the face on a drive,” LeBron 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.” The guard was in agreement after the contest: “That’s a foul we all saw it on national television.”

When the foul was overturned, the Los Angeles squad was 79-69 with only 39 seconds left in the third quarter. As the purple and gold lost their chance to extend their lead with two free throws, James seemed frustrated they ended up losing by that same amount of points at the end.

The 39-year-old still can’t make any sense out if it. “It makes no sense to me,” he added. “It bothers me. … And then I just saw what happened with the Sixers-Knicks game too. Like, what are we doing?”

If we consider free-throw opportunities so far this playoff series, the Lakers had a 19-6 advantage in Game 1, but the Nuggets then earned 17-13 during this past Game 2. “You can’t have a remedy for foul trouble,” coach Darvin Ham said. “It limits your player, takes all the aggression away.”

James says his team now doesn’t have any other choice than to “protect home” as the series head to the Crypto.com Arena

With the series 2-0 against the purple and gold, the Los Angeles squad must now take advantage of their homecourt as they head to the Crypto.com Arena. “Protect home,” LeBron said. “That’s where my mindset goes. And obviously, the only game that matters now is Game 3 and how we can get better. How we can figure this team out. So, Game 3 is where my mindset is.”

Despite losing, the Lakers saw lots of improvement this Monday evening. “We did a lot of good things that gave us an opportunity to win all night,” D’Angelo expressed. “Came down to some things that we really couldn’t control. I like our fight.”

Unfortunately for the California franchise, Murray was inspired in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 of his 20 points in this final stage. His buzzer-beater became just the third winning shot to complete a comeback this big in a playoff game in almost 25 years.

“We have stretches where we just don’t know what we’re doing on both ends of the floor,” Anthony Davis expressed, convinced to know exactly why they didn’t win. “And those are the ones that cost us.”