Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for public criticism of officiating for comments made during the postgame press conference after falling to the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday night.
"(LeBron James) never gets calls," Lue said. "I mean, he attacks. He's one of the most — outside of Russell Westbrook, he's one of the guys that attacks the paint every single play. And he doesn't get a fair whistle all the time because of his strength and because of his power and guys bounce off of him. But those are still fouls and we weren't able to get them. But we've got to play through officiating."
James — who has averaged 8.3 free throw attempts per game over the course of his career — is averaging just 5.4 attempts at the line through 18 games this postseason, which is the lowest of his playoff career (previous low was 7.4 in 2011). But when he was asked to comment on the officiating after the loss, he held his tongue.
Early in the press conference, James said "I'm getting hit, but the refs are not seeing it that way, on my drives."
When asked a follow-up question, though, he made it clear that those comments weren't intended to be critical.
"I didn't talk about the referees," James said. "I was asked a question (earlier) and I answered it. I'm going to save my $25K, okay. So I have not talked about the referees. Don't put me in that cloud."
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