Lakers-Celtics, Game 2: Did The Officiating Cost L.A. The Game?

Well, it wasn’t the greatest night to be a Laker. On the brink of taking full control of the series, L.A. fans now find their favorite team in a dogfight, and many of those fans will cite the officiating in Game 2 as cause for uproar. What about those officials? Did they cost the Lakers the game? Dexter Fishmore, of SB Nation’s Lakers blog, Silver Screen and Roll, takes a look:

Between now and Game Three, Lakerdom will be aflame with complaints about the officiating. Some of them are more justified than others. At least one of the fouls on Kobe, a charging call toward the end of the first half, was a fairly obvious flop by Ray. That sucked, but it’s not like no one on the Lakers has ever flopped for a call. It was a bad whistle, the ref should’ve got it right, but there were dodgy foul calls that went the Lakers’ way as well. On the night the Lakers enjoyed a gargantuan (41 to 26) free-throw advantage that would have us bitching up a storm if the numbers were reversed.

What’s a bit more hard to stomach was an out-of-bounds call that awarded possession to Boston with 1:59 to play and the Lakers down three. Replays showed unambiguously that Garnett last touched the ball, but the refs failed to reverse the initial call despite consulting those exact replays. I honestly have no idea what they thought they were seeing.

Would getting that call right have changed the outcome of the game? Maybe, maybe not. Rondo finished that possession with a made 20-foot jumper that stretched the lead to five. That’s a significant difference with so little time on the clock. On the other hand, the Laker offense was truly a hot, nasty mess in those final minutes. It’s very possible they’d have botched things anyway.

And all in all, it’s certainly true that the Lakers had a number of calls go against them. By the same token, the Celtics came through in the clutch, and the Lakers, regardless of officiating, did not.

Be sure to check out Silver Screen and Roll for more analysis of last night’s loss and the series going forward.