On Monday, the Los Angeles Lakers suffered a gut-wrenching 99-101 loss to the Denver Nuggets to fall behind 0-2 in their first-round playoff series against the reigning champions. The Lakers led by as many as 20 points at one point in the game, but the Nuggets managed to mount an incredible comeback to maintain a perfect record in their two-game homestand. Following the team’s embarrassing defeat, Lakers legend James Worthy announced that he was downright appalled by the team’s performance in the final quarter and a half.
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The three-time NBA Champion ripped the team during the post-game show on Spectrum Sports. He said,
“[The Lakers] just lacked killer instinct, frivolous, unprofessional basketball plays in the playoffs of the second game of a team that has your number.”
Worthy’s frustration with his former team’s performance is quite understandable. The Lakers were extremely careless with the ball throughout the game. They committed 15 turnovers, seven in the second half, while the Nuggets had only two turnovers in the final two quarters [per NBA.com].
LA also did an underwhelming job of boxing out Denver’s players in the paint. Consequently, the Nuggets managed to grab nine crucial offensive rebounds, five more than the Lakers. The disparity in ball security and offensive rebounds makes it obvious as to why the Lakers couldn’t hold on to their 20-point lead. They now head back to LA with a mountain to climb, and no words to deny James Worthy’s criticism of them.
That being said, the team had its own set of complaints as well.
The Lakers were angry about officiating vs. Nuggets
After the game, the Lakers players were furious about referee Scott Foster and his crew missing seemingly easy calls during the game. One in particular left D’Angelo Russell and LeBron James beyond perplexed. In the third quarter, Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. tried to block a layup attempt from Russell, but missed the ball completely, before smacking the veteran guard right in the face.
It was called a foul on the floor, but overturned after the Nuggets challenged it. The referees adjudged that there was “minimal contact.” During the post-game press conference, LeBron James did not mince words when criticizing the referees for overturning the call, saying,
“I don’t understand what’s going on in the replay center, to be honest…What the fu*k do we have a replay center…Makes no sense to me. It bothers me.”
Russell also voiced his frustration on social media with a post.
James was also incensed at the officiating crew during the fourth quarter after they missed an egregious foul from Murray on the Lakers forward.
While the Lakers can point fingers at the referees’ mistakes, ultimately their lack of discipline was the reason behind them blowing a 20-point lead and falling 0-2 in the series. If the franchise doesn’t avoid making rookie mistakes in Game 3 on Thursday, they could be fated to be swept by the Denver Nuggets once again.
