LeBron, Reaves controversial call push Lakers past Suns, to Vegas

LOS ANGELES — It wouldn’t be a real basketball tournament until there was a controversy.

The Suns and Lakers provided it in Tuesday’s playoff-intensity In-Season Tournament quarterfinal game. A Kevin Durant layup cut the Lakers’ lead to two, 105-103, with 11.2 seconds left. The Suns trapped Austin Reaves when he got the inbounds pass and as he went to the ground Devin Booker stripped the ball from him, and the Suns looked like they were about to recover the ball and tie the game when referee Tom Washington awarded a timeout to LeBron James — but a team has to have possession of the ball to call a timeout and this one was loose.

The Suns were fuming about the call after the game. Suns coach Frank Vogel said he was “extremely disappointed” and that the officials told him the play was not reviewable.

“It’s a loose ball, and you can’t call a timeout on a loose ball,” Vogel said. “The whistle blows. I don’t know why. Everything in the league is reviewable. I don’t know why that can’t be reviewable.”

After the game, Crew Chief Josh Tiven said the referees got it right, speaking to a pool reporter.

“During live play, the official felt that L.A. still had possession of the ball when LeBron James requested the timeout,” Tiven said. “Through postgame video review in slow motion replay, we did see that Austin Reaves had his left hand on the ball while it’s pinned against his left leg, which does constitute control.”

That is not true. Watch the video and, to use some football terminology, the ball is coming out, it’s loose and a fumble when the timeout is awarded.

That play also was not why the Suns lost 106-103, a win that sends the Lakers to Las Vegas to take on the Pelicans in the In-Season Tournament semi-finals on Thursday.

“That’s not the ballgame. That’s one play, it’s a 48-minute game,” said Durant, who finished with a team-high 31 points. “I don’t like to complain about calls. Sometimes the ref ain’t gonna get it right. Sometimes it’s on us to play through all that stuff and not worry about putting the game in the ref’s hands.”

Durant is right — the Suns can look back at the first quarter when they had 10 turnovers and say that cost them the game by digging them a hole. They can look at the 21 offensive rebounds they gave up. Those turnovers and offensive boards had the Lakers winning the possession game — they took 27 more shots than the Suns.

“We shot 37% from the field and 30% from 3. Those are numbers usually don’t win on,” Reaves said.

Part of the reason for those Suns’ turnovers was an improved Lakers defense. With Jarred Vanderbilt back, plus Cam Reddish and Taurean Prince, a finally healthy Lakers wing core had size that bothered the Suns. The Lakers could pressure at the level of Suns’ screens, switch and overwhelm the ball handler, plus have Anthony Davis (or Jaxson Hayes) to clean up things on the back end.

That defense was just part of the Lakers winning all the hustle stats in the first half. The Los Angeles pressure forced 14 Suns turnovers in the first 24 minutes, and Los Angeles also had 12 offensive rebounds over that stretch — getting a second chance on 36.4% of their missed shots. Considering that and Booker shooting 3-of-9 from the floor — while LeBron and Davis dominated and scored a combined 34 in the first 24 — the Suns were lucky to only be down 59-47 at the break.

Phoenix opened the second half on a 14-0 run — a Durant dunk tied the game and a Booker transition bucket on the next possession gave the Suns a lead. Phoenix might have pulled away in the third if Austin Reaves didn’t enter the game and score 14 points in the frame to keep it tight.

The fourth quarter was all about LeBron James — he scored or assisted on the Lakers first 19 points in the fourth.

“I mean, no disrespect to anybody else, but he’s the best quarterback in the NBA,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “And that’s bar none.”

That quarterback came out in what became the dagger shot of the game. With the Lakers up one and less than 20 seconds remaining, Davis got the ball and said he looked at LeBron and motioned to start their pick-and-roll motion, but LeBron pointed at Reaves, and then this happened.

Vogel and the Suns have things to worry about that are bigger than this game — the Lakers hunted Jusuf Nurkic and Grayson Allen through the fourth quarter, and while Allen’sminutes will eventually go down when Bradley Beal returns, it’s fair to wonder if Vogel can play Nurkic in key minutes against quality teams like the Lakers. If not, what other option does he have?

That’s a question for another day. The Suns will now host the Kings on Friday night while the Lakers are headed to Las Vegas to take on the Pelicans — something you can be sure makes the suits in the league office happy.