By: Debadrita Ghosh Image credit: NBA and Twitter
Lakers star LeBron James was outraged after his team was denied victory as a result of a contentious foul decision that referee Eric Lewis later admitted he completely "missed" after the game.
James had been fouled on his failed layup at the end of regulation by Jayson Tatum, which is why the Lakers were furious. Guard Patrick Beverly in particular was furious for receiving a technical foul in place of the call.
James said: “You guys have seen some of the games we've lost this year with late-game missed calls. We had an opportunity to literally win the game. ... I don't understand what we're doing.”
He also added: “I watch basketball every single day. I watch these games every single day, and I don't see it happening to nobody else. It's just weird.”
Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports decided to look into each Last Two Minute Report published this season to verify James' allegations, and on Tuesday he made his results public.
As per Rohrbach's report, the Lakers have been engaged in 34 wrong calls or non-calls in the final 2 minutes of the game, and 21 of them went in their favor which helped them to surpass 28 teams.
In fact, with 23, only the Mavericks had received a higher total number of incorrect whistles. The only team with a superior late-game luck percentage is the Clippers (63.2%).
The Lakers have benefited from 61.8 percent of the 34 wrong late-game calls that have had an effect on a Lakers game.
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