Lakers News: De'Aaron Fox Blames Last-Second Loss To LA On Refs

He seemingly has forgotten he shot 14 free throws.

Last night, your Los Angeles Lakers won a free throw-heavy (70 free throws total!) nail-biter at Golden 1 Center against the host Sacramento Kings, 136-134, at the very last second. But a win is a win, especially for a team missing two starters (Anthony Davis and Lonnie Walker IV) and two key role playing wings (Austin Reaves and Troy Brown Jr.).

It all came down to a make-or-break final moment, when star Sacramento point guard De'Aaron Fox managed to hip check Los Angeles starting point guard Dennis Schröder. Fox was whistled for a foul on the play, Schroder nailed his two ensuing free throws, and Fox then missed a halfcourt heave as time expired.

Fox took to Twitter to offer up this unsubtle critique of what he felt was an unfair foul called against him:

That tweet has already been scrubbed from his page as of this writing, but a screen grab caught it before it departed. You can tell the man is salty, but is hoping NBA brass doesn't notice.

Here is the moment of the foul:

In a since-deleted tweet, De'Aaron Fox questioned the officiating from last night's Lakers-Kings game 👀

Fox committed a costly foul on Dennis Schroder late in the 4th, in which Schroder made both ensuing free throws that would secure the win for LA.pic.twitter.com/ovDRQU36pp

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) January 8, 2023

Fox, a fringe All-Star candidate, finished with a quite-strong 34 points on 11-of-21 shooting from the floor and a pretty generous 14 free throws (he made 12), along with nine dimes.

But Schröder put in 27 points himself -- plus the win, and it's quite clearly getting under Fox's skin.

Per Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register, Schröder is empathetic with Fox's plight. The 6'2" vet also managed to sprinkle in his belief that Fox deserves to make the All-Star team in his comment.

"He had a hell of a game, was hot, played great," Schröder raved. "If you foul, you foul... End of the day, you can't fall. Especially when you're in the bonus."

Los Angeles will finally get a brief reprieve today, as the club squares off against the rolling Denver Nuggets on Monday, its third game in five nights.