Mike Malone Prodded Frank Vogel In His Critique Of The Officiating In Game 4 Of Nuggets-Lakers

On Thursday night, the Lakers were able to gut out a 114-108 win against a feisty Nuggets team to take a 3-1 series lead in their Western Conference Finals series, putting them just one game away from the NBA Finals. But it was a contest that wasn’t without its discrepancies, at least in some people’s minds.

On a couple of late drives by Jamal Murray, the Nuggets’ super-talented combo guard weaved his way into the lane, only to find himself on the floor with no whistle to save him. The Lakers had made the key switch to put LeBron on Murray down the stretch, and the result was a key win in a game that could’ve swung the series.

But head coach Mike Malone wasn’t happy about what he saw as lopsided officiating late in Game 4, and speaking to reporters afterward, he got some jabs in at both the referees and the Lakers for their move earlier in the series to submit an official complaint about what they saw as their own lack of free throws.

Malone seemed to be referring to Lakers coach Frank Vogel’s comments after Game 3, when he said they were going through the “proper channels” to try and get LeBron the foul calls he believed he deserved. Through the first three games of the series, LeBron had gone to the line a total of 10 times, after averaging more than six trips to the stripe per contest throughout the postseason. LeBron had a total of 14 free throw attempts in Game 4, converting 11 of them.

By the final buzzer, the Lakers had gone to the line 35 times total to the Nuggets 23, but the overall tally for both teams in the series is an even 113 apiece. It’s unclear whether Malone was simply being facetious to make a point or whether he does indeed plan to submit a complaint, a la the Houston Rockets from a few years back. Either way, it was also a clever move on his part to criticize the officiating while potentially avoiding a fine and getting a joke off at the opposition’s expense.