The Los Angeles Lakers found themselves in a back-and-forth affair with the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night, with the two teams trading blow after blow in a hotly contested fourth quarter. Alas, the Raptors were unable to pull out the victory, with a few plays, such as Immanuel Quickley's flagrant foul (that was his sixth, keeping him out of the game) and RJ Barrett's illegal screen, swinging the game in the Lakers' favor en route to a 132-131 win for the Purple and Gold.

In the end, it was the free throw disparity, particularly during the fourth quarter, that the Raptors contingent thinks cost them the game. Led by Anthony Davis' 11 free throw attempts, the Lakers took an astounding 23 attempts from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter of the game alone, compared to just 13 for the Raptors for the entire contest. This prompted Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic to go scorched earth with an epic rant that would cost him a pretty penny.

Nonetheless, Lakers star LeBron James thinks that his team deserved all those free throws, shutting down any rigged allegations with a blunt message that would put all the naysayers to rest.

“I feel like they fouled, and we didn't,” James told reporters in the locker room after the Lakers' win, via ClutchPoints Twitter (X).

Of course, four of those fouls (and eight of those free throw attempts) were intentional from the Raptors, inflating the disparity even further. Moreover, the foul called on Pascal Siakam that gave the Lakers the lead via two Anthony Davis free throws is a foul any day of the week.

One of the Raptors' other grievance is the fact that Scottie Barnes may have been fouled on one of his dunks in the dying embers of the game, which could have aided them immensely especially after Dennis Schroder and Pascal Siakam each made one too little, too late triples.

Whatever the case may be, this is how the Lakers defeat their opposition. Led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, they overwhelm opponents with their size and strength, attacking the paint with aggression. This is not the first time that one of the Lakers' opponents have decried a free-throw disparity, and this surely wouldn't be the last.