LeBron James granted critical errant timeout on loose ball in controversial Lakers in-season tournament win over Suns

The Los Angeles Lakers caught a big break in a win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday when officials granted LeBron James a timeout on a loose ball at a critical juncture of the game.

The win eliminated the Suns from the NBA's in-season tournament and secured a spot in the semifinals for the Lakers, who advance to face the New Orleans Pelicans in Las Vegas on Thursday.

The incident took place after an inbounds play with 11.2 seconds remaining and the Lakers leading, 105-103. James inbounded the ball from the baseline under the Lakers basket to Austin Reaves after a Kevin Durant layup that cut the Lakers' lead to two points.

Devin Booker challenged Reaves, and Reaves lost control of the ball. Along the opposite sideline, James looked to referee Tom Washington pleading for a timeout. Washington granted one. But the ball was already loose. Washington shouldn't have granted the timeout, but he had a better view of James' call than the actual play on the opposite side of the court.

Suns assistants pleaded with Washington during the timeout for an explanation. But there was no recourse. Once Washington granted the timeout, that was that. The play's not eligible for replay review or reversal.

Suns guard Grayson Allen would have had a chance to corral the loose ball without the errant timeout, which would have given the Suns possession of the ball with roughly seven seconds remaining while trailing by two. Instead, the Lakers retained possession, and Anthony Davis hit a free throw after a foul on the other end to extend the Los Angeles lead to 106-103.

The Suns, out of timeouts, couldn't advance the ball to halfcourt without one after Davis missed the second of two free throws and Booker secured the rebound. Durant missed a rushed 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded, and the Lakers won the game 106-103.

Crew chief Josh Tiven told a pool reporter after reviewing postgame slow-motion video replay, "we did see that Austin Reaves had his left hand on the ball while it’s pinned against his left leg, which does constitute control." Tiven said in the moment officials "felt that LA still had possession of the ball when LeBron James requested the timeout."

The NBA endorsed Tiven's read on the play the next day in its Last 2 Minutes report, marking the moment as a correct call and writing "LAL is granted a timeout when Reaves (LAL) recovers the ball and pins it against his leg, before he loses it again."

Devin Booker responds

Not long after the final buzzer, Booker made his thoughts clear with a screenshot of the play on Instagram that shows the ball clearly loose while James signaled for a timeout.

He told reporters in his news conference the Suns just want "a fair chance" to win the game.

"It is what it is," Booker said. "Refs miss calls sometimes. But when they're that obvious, it's tough."

He also addressed questions as to whether he fouled Reaves before the ball came loose.

"My hands are back," Booker said. "Reaves tried to draw a foul. Once we bumped into each other, I think he was trying to get the ball back since then. That's a good three, four, five seconds to build up before LeBron grabbed the referee and called a timeout. ...

"When they put so much anticipation on the game, we're not asking for favoritism, just a fair chance."

Suns head coach Frank Vogel also shared his thoughts in his postgame news conference.

"You can't call a timeout on a loose ball," Vogel said. "You can't do it. So if the whistle blows, I don't know why — everything in the league is reviewable — I don't know why that can't be reviewable. I know it's not a foul or an out of bounds, which is like a challenge.

"But at any point in the game the whistle blows inadvertently, the ref can huddle up and say inadvertent whistle. Where were we at during the game? And that did not happen. Extremely disappointing."

The NBA and commissioner Adam Silver were looking to generate buzz with the new in-season tournament. It's safe to say this isn't the type of buzz they were seeking.