Last night, the basketball world had all of their eyes on the Staples Center as the Los Angeles Lakers took on the Los Angeles Clippers in a highly-anticipated Christmas Day matchup. The final score was 111-106 in favor of the Clippers and it was all thanks to a late-game block by Patrick Beverley. LeBron James was on the receiving end of the block although it came with a bit of controversy. When the ball went out of bounds, the referee said it went off of LeBron last which gave the ball to the Clippers. James argued that the ball actually went off of Beverley but the ref upheld the original call which led to the Clippers victory. After the game, James spoke out about this thoughts on the play.
“I was surprised by the overturn. I didn’t feel like the ball went off my hand," LeBron said. "If you look at slow motion 4, 5 or 10 times, you can always decide it’s a different call.”
With the loss, the Lakers are now 24-7 on the season and have lost four games in a row. While they still maintain first place in the Western Conference, it's quite clear that the team is struggling right now and need to find themselves back in the win column before the slump gets any worse. With LeBron struggling with injuries, this next stretch of the season could prove to be quite difficult.