The Miami Heat topped the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, but game officials did miss a couple of key calls down the stretch.
The first missed call was a Jimmy Butler shooting foul on LeBron James with 1:01 left in the quarter. Butler made contact with James’ head with an extended arm while driving to the hoop.
L.A. was trailing 105-104 when the missed foul occurred, but James made up for it with a nifty layup to give the Lakers a one-point lead with 58.2 seconds left.
The second missed call was a defensive three-seconds violation on Heat guard Andre Iguodala for not properly clearing the lane with 28 ticks on the clock. The Lakers made up for the mistake once again with another layup, however, and look a one-point lead yet again.
Lakers head coach Frank Vogel wasn’t too pleased with the officiating late in Game 5. And he made that perfectly clear after the game.
“I felt two bad calls at the end put Butler to the line, you know, and that’s unfortunate in a game of this magnitude,” Vogel told reporters, via ESPN. “Anthony Davis has a perfect verticality, should be a play-on. And the time before that, Markieff Morris has his hands on the ball — that should be a play-on. They were given four free throws and made it an uphill battle for us. Very disappointed in that aspect of the game.”
The Lakers and Heat meet again Sunday for Game 6 of the Finals, with tip-off slated for 7:30 p.m. ET.
