Lakers News: Warriors Fans Bemoan Officiating In LA's Game 1 Upset Win

The game's free throw disparity came under (unfair) criticism.

Last night's 117-112 Los Angeles Lakers road win over the Golden State Warriors proved to be a fascinating study in contrasts. The Lakers enjoyed a massive free throw edge over the Warriors, going 25-of-29 from the line to Golden State's 5-of-6 foul shot tally. This was not altogether unexpected, as the paint-oriented Lakers were the NBA's most frequent visitors to the charity stripe during the regular season, while the perimeter-oriented Warriors were its most infrequent. 

A lot of the Game 1 disparity in free throws was actually the result of two very different shot profiles. The Warriors shot a whopping 53 three-pointers, nailing 21 (39.6%), while LA went just 6-of-25 from distance.

Los Angeles dominated Golden State when it came to points scored in the paint, holding a 54-28 edge in that department.

Nevertheless, Warriors fans faulted attendant officials Marc Davis, Ed Malloy, and Nick Buchert for not giving Golden State enough credit.

Los Angeles Floppers and bad officiating.

Still, Warriors in 6. Now we move.

— CurryMuse (@Curry_Muse) May 3, 2023

The knives were certainly out on NBA Twitter postgame:

Last nights officiating was horrible .. warriors win easily if the game wasn’t 8 on 5 pic.twitter.com/4u4LToNkaP

— Him Duncan (@l2iddy) May 3, 2023

A Golden State fan podcast also criticized some referee decisions in the contest:

It’s almost as if the officiating impacted the game. Weird. https://t.co/yJDq6VuSoJ

— Warriors Huddle (@WarriorsHuddle) May 3, 2023

The chorus of complaints turned to reserve point guard Dennis Schröder, though they conveniently ignored the fact that (a) two of those foul shots happened late in the game so that the Warriors could stop the clock and take their chances (to no avail), and (b) five of Schröder's 10 field goal attempts came inside the paint and four others happened in the midrange, much more frequent terrain for drawing foul calls:

I’m dying on this hill idgaf, the officiating was completely one sided. 23 more fta and 10 more personal calls is absolute bs. Dennis Schroeder getting 10fta?? He’s getting the same treatment Malik Monk got last series

— Warriors Realist (@warriorsrealist) May 3, 2023

Ultimately, the Lakers didn't really feel like significant beneficiaries of any kind of special treatment from the referees. Their game is just much more free throw-friendly than the Dubs'.

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