Lakers News: Warriors Fans Bemoan Officiating In LA's Game 1 Upset Win
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.
The knives were certainly out on NBA Twitter postgame:
A Golden State fan podcast also criticized some referee decisions in the contest:
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:
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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