LeBron and Darvin Ham obnoxiously complain about refs after Lakers blow 20-point lead
By Ben Handler
After the Lakers' demoralizing game 2 loss to the Nuggets on Monday night, the team was clearly frustrated. The Nuggets mounted a massive second-half comeback to erase a 20-point deficit and ultimately beat LA on a Jamal Murray buzzer-beater.
There are a number of reasons why the Lakers blew this game, and most of them require looking in the mirror and reflecting on what they could have done better. Yet, in their postgame press conferences, they didn’t exactly take the high road and focus on what they could do better but instead chose to complain about the officiating.
First, it was Lakers head coach Darvin Ham who came to the podium and whined about the officiating blaming calls and non-calls that didn’t go the Lakers’ way. He claimed that they couldn’t use the refs as an excuse, but then continued talking about the refs and complaining about the calls that were and were not made.
Darvin Ham: "Some tough calls. Some tough non-calls. But you can't use any of that as an excuse. You gotta go out there and be ready to make plays whether the whistle gets blown or not. It's getting real tricky -- you go through the season, games being officiated one way, and…
— Michael Corvo (@michaelcorvo_) April 23, 2024
Then later it was LeBron James stepping up to the podium and without even being asked about it, he brought up the officiating and specifically the replay center. He complained that D’Angelo Russell clearly got hit in the face but the play was ruled clean upon review.
LeBron walked out on postgame presser after Game 2 loss after discussing frustration with officiating pic.twitter.com/HzeiiCiulI
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 23, 2024
It’s pretty rich and ironic to hear the Lakers, of all teams, complaining about officiating when they’ve benefited from officiating more than any team in the league by an extremely large margin. On top of that, Darvin Ham ended the game with two timeouts and a challenge in his back pocket that he never used.
@HPbasketball This is the most insane thing about the past 2 seasons of NBA hoops pic.twitter.com/B1oTJDHof3
— Aaron (Wolves Back) (@Perrywinkle1267) April 24, 2024
No team is officiated more favorably than the Lakers, so maybe they just aren’t used to a game actually being called evenly. Or more likely, this is just posturing on their end. They are making these comments in hopes that they’ll get some “make-up calls” in games 3 and 4 back in Los Angeles.
The most annoying part is that we all know that’s exactly what is going to happen. There is zero doubt in my mind that the Lakers will get an extremely favorable whistle next game and that is now one more factor that the Nuggets will have to overcome. God forbid the Lakers actually take the high road and focus on the 20-point lead they just choked away.