Broken clock, reviews mar final minutes of Lakers-Warriors،
LOS ANGELES — The final two minutes of the game clock in the Golden State Warriors' 128-121 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night took more than 20 minutes of real time, thanks to a series of replays and shots. -clock malfunctions.
The delays began with 1:50 left in the fourth period, with the Lakers trailing 124-120, when Los Angeles coach Darvin Ham challenged an out-of-bounds call that awarded the Warriors possession while center Lakers Jaxson Hayes and Golden State forward Andrew Wiggins both went for the rebound.
While officials reviewed the out-of-bounds call, they determined that the corner 3-pointer LeBron James made on the previous trip down the court with 2:07 left didn't count.
The Lakers ended up winning the challenge – Hayes and Wiggins faced off for a jump ball – but lost points in the process.
“I've never seen a decision like that before, at that moment,” said James, who finished with 40 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds. “It was a little weird. … It took a little momentum away from us.”
The decision was eerily similar to a December game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, in which a late 3 by James that would have tied the score was downgraded to 2 points after review. Just as he did that night, James disagreed with Saturday's call.
“I didn’t think I crossed the line, obviously,” James said Saturday. “I knew how much space I had there. And when I shoot, I shoot on my toes, so it's a little difficult for me to have my heel down.”
Crew chief David Guthrie explained the decision in a postgame statement to a poolside reporter.
“James’ left foot is out of bounds as he starts to shoot,” Guthrie said. “Yes, this may be reviewed at that time. The rule is Rule 13, Section II(f)(3): Whether the shooter commits a boundary line violation, the replay center referee will not will only look at the position of the player's feet at the boundary line as they touch the ground immediately before the shot is triggered. This can also be applied during other replay triggers.
While the reverse 3 helped his team, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he would do just as well without it.
“I also don’t like the rule that you can go back and look at an out of bounds, or LeBron’s 3,” Kerr said. “It seems to happen once or twice a year. I'd like to see this rule go away. I think we try so hard to do everything right, to the detriment of the flow. I mean, it doesn't matter if a “guy's foot is half an inch from the line? Is it worth going back 45 seconds and changing everything, with the unintended consequences? This is definitely not my favorite rule. “
James, however, defended the spirit of the replay rules.
“At the end of the day, you want to get it right,” James said. “So, it's unfortunate what happened. But you obviously want to try to get it right. And our team has a job to do – that's the referees – they have a job to do , and they need to do it as quickly as possible, as best they can, so it's all good.
With the score back at 124-117 after James' 3 was canceled, Wiggins won the jump ball, tipping it to Draymond Green, who tried to bring the ball back near the baseline.
While James was penalized for the heel of his sneaker allegedly touching the side out of bounds, the Lakers believed the toe of Green's shoe was doing the same on the baseline with 1:48 left. So Ham used another coach's challenge.
After another review, the referees ruled it out of bounds on Green and LA regained possession. The Lakers inbounded the ball, but the officials quickly blew the whistle, noticing that the shot clock was not working properly. After the referees consulted with the scoreboard operators at center court, LA was handed the ball again and, once again, the shot clock malfunctioned after the Lakers threw it.
The false start happened four times in a row, prompting louder and louder boos with each delay. The ABC broadcast even showed actor and director Ben Affleck, sitting courtside with Jennifer Lopez, slumped in his chair, unable to hide his impatience. ABC cameras also captured James shaking his head and laughing at the long pause in action, saying, “I'm too old for this shit.”
Finally, Crypto.com Arena public address announcer Lawrence Tanter informed the crowd that he would be counting down the shot clock over the arena speakers in order to resume play.
After all that, Los Angeles got the ball back and James had the ball stripped by Warriors star Stephen Curry (31 points), leading to an alley-oop dunk for Jonathan Kuminga (23 points) and putting Golden State in ahead 126-117 with 1:07 remaining.
“It was weird,” Kerr said. “It seems like several times a year you have clock issues. This is about as extreme as I've encountered cases where the backup drive wasn't working either. It's unfortunate . I felt bad for the fans. It was a great match, and then for the last two minutes, everyone was looking at each other wondering what to do.”
Several Lakers players pointed out that the shot clock had a problem during a Warriors possession with 10:53 left in the fourth quarter, when it counted down from 10 to 9, reset to 24 and The game continued, with Trayce Jackson-Davis finishing the possession by scoring a hook shot with 10:38 to give Golden State a 104-96 lead.
“Their points were not taken away because of a clock malfunction,” Ham said. “They kept playing. But that's how it is.”
This sequence was also mentioned in the post-match pool report.
“The shot clock malfunctioned during the live game at that time, and this is not a reviewable matter,” Guthrie said in a statement, adding that it was the team's responsibility to The referee noticed the discrepancy at the time, and they failed to do so. .
LA entered the night one game ahead of Golden State in 9th place in the Western Conference standings. Saturday's result reversed the positioning of the two teams, with the Lakers now in 10th with 14 games remaining.
“It’s going to take everything to get a few wins,” said Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell (23 points, 13 assists). “At this time of year, they all count.”
ESPN's Ramona Shelburne contributed to this report.
