The Cleveland Cavaliers suffered a disappointing loss on Christmas Day against the Golden State Warriors that came down to the wire.
In the final two minutes of the game, there were some *very* questionable no calls against LeBron James made by the referees that could have tilted the outcome in the Warriors’ favor.
The first looked to be a hard reach in by Kevin Durant to swipe the ball from James that made plenty of contact with the 32-year-old that caused him to lose his balance and fall out of bounds. It was followed on the next play with Draymond Green holding James down during a missed shot that was tipped out of bounds.
Lastly, he was again hit on the arm by Durant on a drive to the basket with less than 30 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Each of these plays could have easily changed the outcome of the contest with it still being a three-point game at that point.
Although these were untimely missed calls for the Cavaliers, it’s hard to pinpoint any of them being the single reason for them coming up short. The Warriors had control of the game throughout, but what should be taken away from the contest was the strong play of Kevin Love putting up a double-double with a game-high 31 points and 18 rebounds.
Love showed plenty comfort as the second option behind James that he can depend on when the two teams face off again later this season at the Quicken Loans Arena. Ultimately, it was a contest that the Cavaliers just simply came up a little short due partly to some poor officiating late in the game.