The Los Angeles Lakers saw their two-game win streak snapped on Sunday, as the Houston Rockets beat them 119-115 at Toyota Center. There were two controversial moments toward the end of this game, with one being an offensive foul called on Anthony Davis and he called out the officials for it in his postgame press conference.
“It was a terrible call," Davis said. (Aaron) Holiday was grabbing my arm... The ref said I grabbed and threw him to the ground, which I didn't. I was setting the screen on him and he just flopped and grabbed my arm and fell down. Called an offensive foul."
"Those calls are not made at the end of a basketball game," Davis added. "But, it is what it is. But that's not the reason why we lost the game, obviously."
Davis, who had 30 points (10-18 FG), 13 rebounds, two assists, and five blocks against the Rockets, wasn't the only one to be upset with the officials over that call. In his postgame press conference, Lakers head coach JJ Redick stated it was an egregious decision.
"I'm not sure what happened on the second play," Redick said. "We just watched it and Holiday flopped. I am not sure why that was rewarded... That was egregious."
We often see coaches wrongly claim that their player didn't do anything wrong when there is a controversial call, but Redick was right here. You can check out the play below and it's fairly obvious that Aaron Holiday grabbed Davis' arm and then flopped.
(starts at 9:22 mark):
That foul call canceled out a three-pointer from LeBron James which would have cut the Rockets' lead down to 119-118 with a couple of seconds remaining. While it was unlikely the Lakers would have won the game even if the basket counted, that call robbed them of a chance to win it or send it to overtime.
As for the other controversial moment, that came when 7.1 seconds were remaining in the game. Lakers guard Max Christie was tasked with inbounding the ball after a timeout but struggled to get it in.
When Christie finally threw the ball, Rockets guard Fred VanVleet managed to steal it. Just before he passed it in, though, James had called for a timeout but the officials missed it.
The Lakers were understandably upset about this. It was just a bad mistake on the part of all the officials as they just missed it and they need to do better. Had they got it right here, we might have witnessed the most impressive win of the season for the Lakers.
The Rockets seemed headed to a comfortable win when they went up by 22 points in the second quarter but the Lakers stormed back in the second half. They were within touching distance of a win at the end there and were disappointed to lose in this fashion.
The loss dropped the Lakers to 20-15 on the season and they'll be in action next against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center on Tuesday at 7:30 PM ET. As for the Rockets, they improved to 23-12 with the win and take on the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena on Tuesday at 7 PM ET.
