ATLANTA -- LeBron James said he received an explanation from referee Leroy Richardson that he's "never heard in my 14-year career" about why the Cavs didn't get a timeout called before Kyrie Irving was controversially tied up for a jump ball in the closing seconds of regulation in a stunning overtime loss to the Hawks Sunday.

The Cavs blew a 26-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost 126-125 in overtime. They were collectively stunned over the loss and shouldered the blame for it. As an aside, they were also clearly frustrated with several officiating calls -- with at least three by Richardson, perhaps more -- that went against them in the closing seconds of regulation and overtime.

The calls ranged from James fouling out in overtime, to a jump ball being called between Irving and Kent Bazemore when it appeared both Bazemore and Paul Millsap had a foot out of bounds as they were touching the ball.

James said he tried to call timeout anyway before the jump ball was called (and we'll get to why he didn't get the call). Also, Irving was called for charging with 12.3 seconds left in overtime and the Cavs down three.

Rewinding back to the end of regulation, the Cavs led 111-109 with 8.3 seconds left when James inbounded the ball after a Hawks score to Irving. As Bazemore and Millsap were heading over to trap Irving, James said his timeout call was denied and "I'm sitting right next to the ref, and the explanation he gave me, I never heard in my 14-year career. Never.

"He told me that I'm not allowed to call timeout because he didn't know who had possession of the ball," James said, relaying what Richardson said to him. "And I was the one who entered the ball to Kyrie. And as soon as I seen Millsap go trap Kyrie in the short corner, I looked at him and called timeout twice -- at least twice -- and he wasn't even paying me no attention. And that's when the jump ball happened. I said, 'Why?' He said, 'I can't call timeout because I don't know who has possession of the ball. I don't know what's going on. I don't know the tie up.' I said, 'That doesn't make any sense because we have the ball. I entered the ball to Kyrie so you shouldn't even be worried about the tie up or not, I'm calling it as soon as I saw Kyrie is getting tied up in the corner.'

"So, I've never heard that one before. I've never heard that explanation before in my life."

Bazemore won the ensuing jump ball and Millsap drained a jumper at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.

With 18.7 seconds left in regulation and the Cavs still up by four, James was whistled for a five-second call trying to get the ball inbounds.

"It was pretty quick," James said of the five-second count.

And then James was called for his sixth foul by Richardson with 1:52 left in overtime. James was behind Millsap as Millsap was going up for a rebound.

"Yeah, it wasn't a foul on my sixth foul," James said. "I knew I had five. I knew the ball was going long. So, I may have grazed Millsap a little bit but I mean, throughout the course of a game (that happens). I didn't push him or anything like that."

Coach Tyronn Lue, as is his customary response, declined to comment on the officiating.

Irving, who was incensed when Richardson called him for the charge late in overtime, when asked for his thoughts on that call and the jump ball asked how much in would cost him in fines from the NBA to answer the question.

"How much is the fine for talking about the refs," Irving began. "It's like 50 (thousand dollars), 25 (thousand)? Not worth it. Not worth it, so, sorry. I had some good conversation with the refs. Just a few plays that didn't go our way.

"That's not the, the kind of the first step that led to the breakdown of what happened in that fourth quarter, and why it extended the game. There were some things that could've gone a different way but didn't and now we just got to move on from here."