The Minnesota Timberwolves eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers 4-1 in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series last month. While the final tally looks lopsided, the matchup was closer than the numbers suggest.
Los Angeles had a real shot to even the series in Game 4 and take back home-court advantage from Minnesota. However, a disputed play at the end of the game, initially ruled a turnover in favor of the Lakers, was overturned into a foul on LeBron James, hurting the Lakers’ chances of winning one at Target Center.
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“There was a piece of camera work in the postseason of our game in Minnesota that I have never seen in my F****** life,” James recalled during the recent episode of the “Mind the Game” podcast. “The strip on Ant… I’ve never seen that computer work in my life. Where the fu** did that camera come from? It was like some forensic files type sh**, it was like forensic files camera. I was like, ‘What the fu** is this?'”
The NBA pulled out the footage from the “Eye in the Sky”
With the Timberwolves up 2-1, the Lakers had a chance to steal Game 4 in Minnesota. With 33 seconds left in the game and Minnesota up by just one point at 114-113, the Lakers had ball possession. But LBJ turned the ball over on the inbounds pass. Minnesota worked the clock, and with 10.1 seconds left, Anthony Edwards attacked the basket and was stripped by Bron.
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The initial call was that Edwards lost the ball, and the Lakers had possession. If that call were upheld, the Lakers would’ve had 10.1 seconds to win the game with a two-point basket. But the “Eye in the Sky” camera showed that “King” slapped “Ant-Man’s” wrist before he lost possession of the ball.
So the call was overturned into a personal foul on Bron, Ant made the two free throws, and the Lakers were down three instead of one during their final possession. Austin Reaves missed the potential game-tying triple, and the Lakers lost 113-116. They fell behind 1-3 in the series, and that was all she wrote.
James disputed that the hand is part of the ball
With his hand caught inside the cookie jar, LeBron tried to justify the original call during the postgame interviews by referencing a decades-old basketball adage: The hand is part of the ball.
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“That play happens all the time, you know. Hand is part of the ball, that’s what they say,” James said after the game. “I felt like a hand was a part of that ball. I was able to get his hand on top of the ball, the ball stripped down, and out on him. Seen that play over and over before, but it is what it is.”
It was clearly a foul by Bron and the “Eye in the Sky” camera caught it. However, contrary to James’ claim that he knew nothing about the not-so-secret camera, the NBA announced in March 2023 that it would utilize Sony’s “Hawkeye” camera to decide disputed calls beginning the 2023-24 season. So if LeBron claims he didn’t know it existed, it’s either the memo never reached him, or he’s been caught bending the truth once more.