LeBron James Airs Out Frustration with Refs After Kevin Durant Foul Controversy

LeBron James isn't happy with the way officials have called games with him this year, especially in the Cleveland Cavaliers' recent loss to the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day.

During Wednesday's shootaround, he spoke about the lack of calls from referees staring right at him, via Dime on Uproxx:

"If he says 'I may have missed that one' or 'maybe I wasn't in the right position.' But when you see the ref right there on the baseline looking at the whole play, and you go up to him and he says it's no call, multiple times in the crunch time, that's the frustrating part. And for me, it's even more frustrating because I know how I'm officiated at times."

In its Last Two Minute Report for the Warriors-Cavaliers Christmas Day showdown, the NBA concluded Kevin Durant had fouled James three different times in the final 1:12 of the fourth quarter. The report said Durant fouled James twice on one drive to the basket with about 30 seconds left before James lost the ball out of bounds. After a replay review, the Warriors were awarded possession.

While a pair of made free throws would have cut Golden State's lead down to one, the Cavaliers instead didn't score for the rest of the game. They went on to lose, 99-92.

James' conflicts with the officials have been an issue all season. He earned two technical fouls and an ejection for the first time in his career earlier this year, and his .314 free-throw rate and his 5.9 free-throw attempts per game are both the lowest since his rookie season, per Basketball Reference. A whopping 132 players have gone to the line more often per shot attempt than James this year.

Although James is averaging 28.1 points per game this season—his highest mark since the 2009-10 campaign—he is not getting much help from the officials.