The Los Angeles Lakers are moving on to the In-Season Tournament semifinals in Las Vegas to face the New Orleans Pelicans after beating the Phoenix Suns 106-103 in a thriller on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals.
The game featured an incredible performance from LeBron James (with KD matching him on the other side) and some late game heroics from Austin Reaves, but the big talking point immediately after the game was a controversial call that helped seal the victory for the Lakers. After a KD layup cut the lead to 105-103, the Suns seemed to have forced a turnover by Reaves on the ensuing inbound, knocking the ball loose, but as the ball rolled across the lane, the Lakers were granted a timeout as LeBron jumped up and down trying to get one called seeing Reaves was in trouble.
That led to plenty of anger from Phoenix’s bench and fans, both of the Suns and just generally around the NBA, as the Lakers appeared to get a gift in the form of a timeout granted when they didn’t have possession. After the game, that sequence was debated by Charles Barkley and Shaq on Inside the NBA, with Shaq unsurprisingly being on the Lakers side believing it was the right call, while Chuck felt his Suns got robbed.
Barkley, never one to miss a timely reference, compared the Lakers being given that timeout to the College Football Playoff committee putting one-loss Alabama in over undefeated Florida State.
Now, it’s fair to wonder if the Suns would’ve gained possession before the ball rolled out of bounds had the whistle not blown (it looked very close to the baseline by the time Grayson Allen ran it down), but it certainly didn’t look like the Lakers had anything close possession when the timeout was granted.
Given it’s the Lakers, it naturally became a larger conspiracy than just being a bad call, and Chuck couldn’t help but stoke that fire by comparing it to the current controversy raging in college football, with Alabama fitting in the Lakers role in that sport of being the team the league and TV networks always love being involved for ratings.