Things have not been going the Los Angeles Lakers’ way this season. The team currently has a 20-25 record and is out of the playoff picture entirely in the Western Conference. On top of the team’s usual struggles, the Lakers have also had to deal with the absence of Anthony Davis due to injury.
If that was not enough of a hurdle to overcome, the Lakers have also had to overcome some shoddy officiating as of late. There have been several examples of bad officiating at the end of Lakers games, including a completely-missed foul on Russell Westbrook against the Philadelphia 76ers (even though a Westbrook iso possession is a terrible idea to close a game).
The NBA’s Last Two Minute report from the team’s Wednesday night loss to the Sacramento Kings proved that the Lakers were yet again screwed by bad officiating. With LA down four, Kendrick Nunn drilled a contested three-pointer and should have also received a foul shot. Making that foul shot would have tied the game.
I know Laker fans are tired of hearing this, but the NBA’s L2M report says that Kendrick Nunn should’ve had a four-point play at the end of last night’s game. pic.twitter.com/8EqxhteHli
— Daniel Starkand (@DStarkand) January 19, 2023
The Lakers had to then commit a clear-path foul to get the ball back and ultimately lost. If the game was tied, things could have gone much differently and the Lakers could have won the game.
Bad officiating could hurt the Lakers significantly in the long term.
It might not seem like a big deal that the refs missed a call in a January NBA game when there is still so much basketball left to play. The problem is that this has happened multiple times and it has cost the Lakers multiple games as a result.
The Western Conference is so tight from top to bottom that these handful of games truly could make a difference; especially with the Play-In Tournament now instituted for the seventh through tenth seeds.
Getting calls wrong could be the difference between being one of the six teams that secures a playoff spot and having to play for your playoff life. This year, a few games could be the difference between the sixth seed and the 11th seed.
The Lakers are the 13th seed in the Western Conference and are only 2.5 games back of being the sixth seed in the West. If there are 4-5 games that get swung that quite literally is the difference between securing a playoff spot and missing the playoffs for a second year in a row.
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Los Angeles already has to deal with enough nonsense this season, the last thing the Lakers need to deal with is bad officiating that always seems to hurt them in the biggest moments.