The closing minutes of Game 5 of the NBA Finals were determined at the free throw line. LeBron James made three free throws in the final three minutes, while Jimmy Butler made four in the final 47 seconds to give the Heat a season-saving victory over the Lakers. Those calls — one on Anthony Davis, another on Markieff Morris — didn’t sit right with Lakers coach Frank Vogel.
“I felt two bad calls put Butler to the line,” Vogel said. “That’s unfortunate in a game of this magnitude. Anthony Davis has a perfect verticality. That should be a play on. The time before that, Markieff Morris has his hand on the ball, that should be a play on. They were given four free throws, and that made it an uphill battle for us. I’m very disappointed in that aspect of the game. But our group is fine. We’re going to bounce back strong. We’ll have a better performance in Game 6. We’ve got to play better for the 48 minutes leading up to that last minute.”
Does he have a point? Well, according to the league’s official Last Two Minute Report … kind of. On the two plays Vogel cites specifically, the report stands by the officiating on the floor. The Davis play is a somewhat obvious foul, as he jumps into Butler rather than maintaining pure verticality. The report calls that a foul, saying “Davis (LAL) jumps from point A to point B and initiates body contact with Butler (MIA) during his driving shot attempt.” It is a foul.
The Morris play is a bit harder to parse in real time, but it looks like a foul on first viewing. The report confirms that, saying “Morris (LAL) makes contact across Butler’s (MIA) left arm after his gather.”
However, Vogel missed the one enormous missed call that the report identifies. With 28 seconds remaining and the Lakers trailing by one, the report states that Andre Iguodala committed a defensive three-second violation that was missed. If that had been called, the Lakers would have earned a technical free throw that could have potentially tied the game. They would have maintained possession after that. In a tie game with so little time left on the clock, the Lakers likely would have played for something resembling the final shot, changing the entire endgame and potentially pushing the game in their favor.
There was technically another missed call in favor of the Heat down the stretch. With 1:01 left on the clock, James missed a shot attempt at the basket that the league ruled a foul on Butler after the fact. However, that non-call had no impact on the outcome. James got his own rebound and made the second attempt, so it would have been two free throws, but the Lakers got their two points anyway.
The officiating on balance was fairly even. The Heat shot 22 free throws. The Lakers shot 21. And in spite of the Iguodala missed call, the Lakers still had the ball with a chance to win the game on the final possession. The refs may not have done them any favors, but the failure of the final possession rests on their shoulders.