The Golden State Warriors faced the Houston Rockets on Sunday. But that didn’t stop the Los Angeles Lakers from becoming a topic of conversation during the team’s local broadcast.
With 4:33 remaining in the third quarter, Rockets guard Fred VanVleet got whistled for a personal foul leading to a brief break in the game’s action. That led NBC Sports Bay Area’s Bob Fitzgerald to make note of the importance of officiating, pointing to Sunday’s matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder as evidence.
“One thing — we can talk about it, fans can talk about it — when you get into the playoffs, officiating matters,” Fitzgerald said. “The Lakers went into Oklahoma City and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did not shoot a free throw. OK? In a home game, for a guy who averages 11 free throws a game. And then you have a game like tonight, Draymond Green’s fouls are going to have an impact on this game. And apparently when you shoot a layup, it’s a windup now.”
While Fitzgerald didn’t outright accuse the officials of being biased toward the Lakers, that thought was seemingly implied. To that end, it’s worth noting that Los Angeles ranks fifth in the NBA in free throw attempts per game (23.1) and also averages the fifth fewest personal fouls (17.3) called against them this season.
Of course, such statistics hardly prove the existence of bias, as some teams are simply better than others at drawing free throws and avoiding fouling. The Lakers just happen to be a team that’s been good at both this season, with their big market status and rostering of LeBron James and Luka Dončić only furthering the notion that they get a favorable whistle on both sides of the floor.
Nevertheless, Fitzgerald is hardly the first person to call out NBA officiating in recent weeks, with the Warriors play-by-play man joining the likes of Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and TNT’s Charles Barkley. If nothing else, his stance stands in stark contrast to the one taken by Skip Bayless, who suggested last year that the Lakers don’t get as many calls as they should because the refs don’t want to embarrass LeBron by putting him at the free throw line.