Lakers: Frank Vogel Very Frustrated By Officiating Crew in Loss to the Clippers

The Lakers already have a lot working against them, but the officiating crew in Friday night's game absolutely played too much of a role.

Things simply have not gone the Lakers' way this year. Whether it be injuries or just plain bad luck, it all seems to be piling on Los Angeles. That once again carried over into Friday night where they were already playing without Anthony Davis. 

With less than 30 seconds to go in the game and the Laker down by 1, LeBron tried to save a ball going out of bounds. The initial ruling was that the Clippers' Robert Covington had knocked it out of bounds when Bron tried to get it back in. 

But a challenge by the Clippers eventually resulted in them getting the ball back, with the officiating crew ruling that James had stepped out of bounds. Frank Vogel was furious, arguing that the play continued with Covington making the final play, meaning that should not have been reviewable. 

"I couldn't disagree more strongly with the ruling. ...It's just wrong. They would have won the challenge either way, whether I called the timeout or not. It should have been our ball in that situation, very disappointing."

The Clippers would eventually go on to beat the Lakers 105-102, so that play was huge. So now, the Lakers will move on with a concerning 27-32 record for 9th in the West. What's more concerning is that they are just 3.5 games up on the 11th place Spurs, and very much in danger of falling out of the play-in tournament. 

Plays like that have the potential to impact a season, and it would be a shame if the Lakers have to look back on that moment after missing the play-in. But they also didn't help their cause in this game, shooting 41.9 percent from the field and hitting 8 of 31 attempts from beyond the arc.