After the Lakers lost Game 2 to the Thunder on Thursday by a score of 125-107, Austin Reaves and several of his teammates spoke to the game’s referees on the court before heading to the locker room, seemingly expressing their frustration with how the game was called (Twitter video link). As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, head coach JJ Redick voiced those frustrations during his post-game press conference.
“I sarcastically said the other day, (the Thunder are) the most disruptive team without fouling,” Redick said. “I mean, they have a few guys that foul on every possession. … They’re hard enough to play. They’re hard enough to play, you’ve got to be able to just call them if they foul, and they do foul.”
Through two games, the free throw disparity between the two teams isn’t significant — the Thunder have gone to the line 38 times, while the Lakers have attempted 34 free throws. However, Los Angeles’ leading scorer and play-maker LeBron James only has five of those free throw attempts, prompting Redick to specifically address the way the four-time MVP is being officiated.
“LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I’ve ever seen,” Redick said. “I mean, I’ve been with him two years now. The smaller guys, because they can be theatric, they typically draw more fouls, and the bigger players that are built like LeBron, it’s hard for them. He gets clobbered. He got clobbered again tonight a bunch.
“And that’s not like a new thing. That’s not specific to this crew or this series. He gets fouled a lot and it doesn’t (get called). The guy gets hit on the head more than any player I’ve seen on drives, and it rarely gets called.”
As McMenamin observes, James appeared to express his displeasure with a number of calls over the course of the game, but he declined to speak about the officiating after the game. Reaves was more willing to discuss the subject, explaining that he took particular exception to a moment when crew chief John Goble “yelled in my face” as the Lakers guard was attempting to get in position for a jump ball (Twitter video link).
“At the end of the day, we’re grown men. And I just didn’t feel like he needed to yell in my face like that,” Reaves said. “I told him that. I wasn’t disrespectful. I told him if I did that to him first, I would have got a tech. I feel like the only reason I didn’t get a tech is because he knew he was in the wrong. So, yeah, I just felt disrespected.”
Regardless of whether or not the Lakers have legitimate gripes about the officiating, neither of the first two games in the series has been close, with the Thunder winning each one by 18 points. A more favorable whistle wouldn’t solve Los Angeles’ real problems in the matchup, according to Dan Woike of The Athletic. Redick acknowledged as much during his post-game remarks.
“We didn’t lose because of the refs,” the Lakers’ coach said, per Law Murray of The Athletic. “That’s never the case. You don’t lose because of the officials. You lose because the other team outplayed you. They obviously outplayed us. … So we just got to be better, and we’ll look at how we can be better at both ends.”
Once again people in their feelings. Watched the first half and the refs were all Lakers. Can’t complain all the time that doesn’t help you win.
The lakers allow a team to shoot 56%FG. The thunder take 26FT(lakers 21FT) and you let the thunder make 14-3PT shots. Lakers blame the refs, while losing by 18. GTFOH
Lakers are one of the most gifted teams by the Refs. Reeves is one of tyhe biggest floppers in the NBA and he shot 10 FT. LeBron uses his shoulder to move players in defensive position and never get called for offensive fouls. JJ thinks Lebron doesn’t get foul calls? What has he been watching over the years?
I’m completely impartial on Lakers but this is just wrong. LeBron ignore 10 fouls per game against LeBron and have for years. He’s right there with Shaq
Refs ignore
Watching game 1 the Lakers were holding SGA on a lot of plays some were very obvioyus and no call. Reminds me of watching Curry with the ball and holding players. JJ and lakers said all this so they can get a bunch of fouls calls while at home for game 3.
There is no doubt that OKC is the dirtiest team in the league and let’s just say SGA takes the rules to their limit and the refs look the other way, but refs rarely create an 18 point difference.
After Hardin cheated for a decade the league finally changed the standards for shooting fouls, hopefully they will move faster on creating space with offensive fouls. To his credit – SGA is better at hiding it than Brown and others.
Speaking of Hardin 9-28 in last two games, 1–11 from 3 and 11 turnovers. When are teams going to learn that if you most definitely don’t want to win a championship sign or trade for this guy!!
LOL! Lebron…worst star whistle…OMFG….hahaha. Have you ever watched a Timberwolves game. Anthony Edwards, bro. That dude refuses to play like a b. Lebron basically created flop culture. Ant and Wemby will save the league, while Jamal Murray and SGA make it unwatchable.
The refs must’ve forced the turnovers and the Thunder to shoot better from the field too…