LeBron James was called for a flagrant foul Wednesday during the Miami Heat’s 101-97 streak-ending loss to the Chicago Bulls after putting a shoulder and elbow into Carlos Boozer, who was setting a screen on him late in the game.
James’ forceful shoulder into Boozer seemed to be retaliation for getting hit in the head on his team’s previous possession. He was called for a flagrant-1 foul, and Boozer made one of two free throws to put increase the Bulls’ lead to 92-85.
Miami scored on two straight possessions to cut the deficit to five, but an offensive rebound and putback by Carlos Boozer with 57 seconds left made it a three possession game again. Chicago held on for the 101-97 win to end Miami’s 27-game winning streak, which is the second-longest in NBA history.
After the game, James addressed his flagrant foul on Boozer, saying there were many more non-basketball fouls committed by the Bulls against him that were not called flagrants.
“First of all, Kirk Hinrich in the first quarter basically grabbed me with two hands and brought me to the ground. And the last one, Taj Gibson was able to collar me around the shoulder and bring me to the ground. Those are not basketball plays.”
Chicago may have won the game anyway, but they seemed to benefit from the officials on their side.
Video via Beyond the Buzzer
