During the Los Angeles Lakers game against the Houston Rockets Tuesday, there was a bizarre moment that could’ve altered the outcome of the game.
Late in the fourth quarter, Kent Bazemore was fouled so the referees put him on the free-throw line. Bazemore made both free throws, but a few plays later, the referees removed the points off the board because of a mistake.
Bazemore wasn’t in shooting motion when he was fouled, but the scoreboard indicated Houston had reached the five-foul limit before L.A. could go to the line after every foul. However, Houston was actually at four fouls, so Bazemore wasn’t supposed to shoot free throws.
It was an unusual occurrence because the game had moved on from that moment, yet the referees wiped away the points later in the game, which could’ve cost L.A.
After Los Angeles’ win, head coach Frank Vogel explained his frustrations with the moment.
“That’s definitely something the league has got to look at,” Vogel said. “I understand the mindset to get it right, but it was their fourth foul and they gave us free throws. You’re only supposed to get free throws on the fifth foul, so we shoot the free throws and play resumes, and a couple possessions later they made a mistake, so they just take the points off the board…which is to me, like, once play resumes, you can’t correct that. You can’t correct it.”
Vogel, LeBron James and Anthony Davis spoke to the referees on the sidelines for a few minutes to clarify their perspective, and Davis explained what happened after the game.
“The scoreboard said four team fouls, which means it was the fifth, and so Baze shot two free throws. And when they went back to look at it, it was only the fourth team foul,” Davis said. “They put it up there right away, so it was really four, and so they took the two points away, but what me, Bron, and coach were explaining to the refs was that ‘well, we lost a possession.’”
Fortunately for L.A., the mistake didn’t result in a loss because Houston’s Jalen Green erupted with two incredible 3-pointers in the final seconds to nearly force the game to overtime or pull out a narrow win.
L.A. will now move on and face the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday, the team that came back down from 26 points to win last week.
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