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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Charles Curtis

The Lakers’ controversial timeout that had the Suns livid in tournament loss, explained

When is a timeout NOT a timeout?

In the NBA, it’s simple: You can only call a timeout when the ball is in your control or there’s a dead ball.

And on Tuesday night, in the Los Angeles Lakers’ In-Season Tournament win over the Phoenix Suns, there was a BIG question about a late timeout being called as Suns players were around Austin Reaves and the ball may have not been in the guard’s possession while LeBron James called for time.

What’s the deal here? What are the rules? Why are the Suns so mad? Let’s dive in with all of that:

What happened?

Check out the video above. Reaves has the ball and is surrounded by Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. At some point, at the top end of the court, you’ll see James put his hands together for a timeout. What you CAN’T see is where the ball is with Reaves before it popped out … and THEN the whistle blows.

So, if the ball was in Reaves’ possession and James made that call, it could stand. But we can’t tell from that angle.

What's the NBA's rule here?

From the NBA rulebook, it’s two sentences:

A request for a timeout by a player in the game or the head coach shall be granted only when the ball is dead or in control of a player on the team making the request. A request at any other time shall be ignored.

The key there is “in control.”

What did officials say about it?

At some point in the scrum, apparently Reaves had the ball pinned against his leg. This angle doesn’t really show it as far as I can tell:

What did Devin Booker say?

He was mad about it both with reporters and on Instagram:

What did LeBron James say about it?

He didn’t say much beyond that he called a timeout and that his attention was toward the referee, which is the exact right thing to say.

Was it reviewable?

Ask Suns coach Frank Vogel about that.

Here it is in slow motion

You make the call.

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