The Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Denver Nuggets 101-99 on Monday night.

As has often been the case in the playoffs over the past two years, L.A. almost beat Denver – but in the end they simply couldn’t get the job done.

Following the outing, multiple members of the Lakers came out and publicly trashed the referees involved in this game.

“I don’t understand what’s going on in the replay center, to be honest,” said James.

“What f— do we have a replay center for? It makes no sense to me… What are we doing?”

James then pointed to an ongoing playoff series in the Eastern Conference between the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks as an example of how bad the officiating has gotten.

“It bothers me,” he continued. “Sorry, I didn’t answer your question but that s— is like — and then I just saw what happened with the Sixers-Knicks game, too. What are we doing?”

Darvin Ham was similarly unhappy with the officiating crew.

“Some tough calls,” Ham said.

“Some tough non-calls. But you can’t use any of that as an excuse. You gotta go out there and be ready to make plays whether the whistle gets blown or not.”

Ham also pointed out that it felt like referees were calling games differently in the playoffs.

“It’s getting real tricky — you go through the season, games being officiated one way, and then you get to the playoffs, and I guess it’s left up to the interpretation of the three individual guys that’s doing the job out there,” Ham continued.

While the referees obviously didn’t help, L.A. has been owned by the Nuggets over their last 10 games. Officials may have screwed them in this game, but Denver is also clearly the better team in this series.

Will the Lakers be able to find a way to make this first-round matchup even slightly competitive? Or will it go the way of the Western Conference Finals from last year? Time will tell.

Charles Kruger has been credentialed to cover two Super Bowls, four NBA Finals, and one World Series. A 20-year veteran in the sports world, he has sources spanning the NBA, MLB, NFL, UFC and NASCAR. Currently residing in Los Angeles, Calif., he is Game 7’s go-to source for rumors surrounding the Lakers, Clippers and Dodgers.