The Los Angeles Lakers earned a statement win over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, giving them their fifth straight victory and eighth in nine games. Within that stretch, the Lakers have beaten heavyweights like the Knicks and Timberwolves, turning that Nuggets victory into yet another bit of evidence that the Lakers, after struggling against contenders all season, may finally have figured out how to compete with the league’s best teams.
And yet, according to Sunday’s NBA’s Last Two Minute Report, the Lakers benefited from a critical, incorrect call down the stretch in regulation as they desperately tried to force overtime. Trailing by three with just under 10 seconds remaining, the Lakers inbounded the ball to Austin Reaves, who got stripped by Nuggets forward Spencer Jones, but drew a foul in the process. He sank both of his free throws, cutting the deficit to a single point.
According to the NBA, however, “Jones extends his right hand and cleanly dislodges the ball away from Reaves after he received the inbound pass.” The ball went out of bounds and the NBA does not specify who it went out off of, so we don’t know where possession ultimately should have been awarded. It seems as though it hits Jones’ hand last, though that isn’t definitive.
In reality, Reaves sank his free throws. Cam Johnson made two of his own on the other end, and then Reaves was fouled again. He made the first free throw, but intentionally missed the second, got the rebound and tied the game at 118. The Lakers went on to win in overtime thanks to a game winner by Luka Dončić, arguably his biggest shot in purple and gold.
It would be impossible to truly tell where the game would have gone without the incorrect foul call, but the Lakers would have been in a pretty tricky position. If Denver had been awarded possession, they would have needed a turnover and a 3-pointer to tie the game. Even if they’d gotten the ball, they’d just spent their last timeout setting up the inbounds play to Reaves. They would have needed to inbound the ball from the baseline without time to draw something else up while still trailing by three against a defense that was determined to foul rather than allow a 3-pointer. At the very least, the odds would have been stacked against them.
Incorrect calls happen throughout games, and only the last two minutes are publicly audited. Yet the ramifications of this one could be seismic. Right now, the Lakers hold sole control of the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, but by only half a game. Meanwhile, Denver and Minnesota are tied for No. 5, yet they trail the Lakers by only 1 ½ games. Phoenix is looming in the No. 7 slot, trailing the Lakers by only three games and posing a real threat to crash the top six, knocking another presumed contender into the Play-In Tournament. Every game between those five teams is crucial down the stretch and the Lakers may have gotten away with one on Saturday.
None of this undermines the underlying importance of the performance. The Lakers, at the very least, played Denver evenly for 48 minutes after beating New York and Minnesota recently. They’re rounding into shape at the right time, looking like a bigger playoff threat than they have all year. That would be true with or without one missed call. But with so much of the Western Conference playoff picture up in the air, that call could potentially have enormous ramifications when the dust settles over the next few weeks.