Lakers News: Magic Johnson Chides Referees For Missed Foul Call Against Boston

Lakers legend tweets out his thoughts on the missed call that occurred during last night's game.

On Saturday, the referees at TD Garden blew one of the most obvious calls which left many around the league in shock, as the Lakers took an overtime loss to the Boston Celtics 125-121.

With five seconds left in regulation, the game was all tied up at 105. LeBron James drove to the bucket and was clearly fouled by Celtics star Jayson Tatum on the arm, but there was no whistle.

Following the missed call, the four-time NBA champion was in complete disbelief. The following day, Lakers legend, Magic Johnson, even stepped in and shared his two cents on Twitter: 

In last night’s @Lakers loss to the Celtics the referees completely blew the call on LeBron in the closing seconds. What made it worse is there was a referee right up under the basket watching the play unfold!

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) January 29, 2023

Many players around the league can agree on how ridiculous this missed call was.

On top of some teammates including Anthony Davis, Dennis Schroder, and Patrick Beverley expressing their shock, even their opponent, Jayson Tatum, appeared to be baffled at the situation.  

Even Jayson Tatum was laughing after the game because he was surprised the refs didn’t call the foul Lol!

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) January 29, 2023

After the tough loss, an NBA pool report admitted that there was, in fact, contact. Crew chief Eric Lewis confirmed that the referees missed a foul call on James. 

As players like Davis stated, a missed call like that— which had the ability to alter the outcome of the game—was completely unacceptable and felt like an injustice. 

The Lakers had an opportunity to take home a win this game, but instead, got cheated.  Every win is critical for Los Angeles as they currently sit in the 13th seed of the Western Conference and continue to battle their way to the play-in tournament.