Charles Barkley. Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Charles Barkley slams Lakers for blaming refs after Game 2 loss

By Sai Mohan | Last updated 4/23/24

The Lakers resorted to the low-hanging fruit of blaming the referees for their heartbreaking loss to the Nuggets on Monday. After the game, D'Angelo Russell, Darvin Ham and LeBron James voiced their displeasure over several officiating calls, with Russell even tweeting about it.

That’s a foul we all saw it on national television.
— D'Angelo Russell (@Dloading) April 23, 2024

Russell was referring to a play in the third quarter when he got struck in the face by Michael Porter Jr. The Lakers used their official challenge to try and reverse the call but to no avail.

Even James lashed out at the league for not overturning the call.

"D-Lo clearly gets hit in the face on a drive. What the f--- do we have a replay center [for] if it's going to go [like that]. It doesn’t make sense to me," James fumed.

The excessive complaining from the Lakers did not sit well with Charles Barkley.

"The officials had nothing to do with that game," Barkley said on "Inside the NBA" on TNT. "Obviously, when you give up a 20-point lead, you have to make some mistakes, but the Lakers made every play down the stretch, and so did the Nuggets. This had nothing to do with the officiating. Give the Nuggets credit, man. Them boys balled out."

As Barkley pointed out, the Lakers blew a 20-point advantage, their second-largest blown lead in a playoff game since 1997.

The Lakers have now lost 10 consecutive games to the Nuggets dating back to last year's Western Conference Finals. They will get a chance to end the streak in Game 3, which tips off at 7 p.m. ET at the Crypto.com Arena on Thursday.

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