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.
Early third quarter as well. A clear foul on Reaves, wrapping up SGA, turns into not just SGA’s 4th but a FLAGRANT on his part?? One of the biggest BS calls of the postseason – OKC had to waste a challenge on it. Not many want to acknowledge it – especially Lakers fans – but OKC was minus its top 2 offensive threats (LAL its #1 threat) in that pivotal third quarter, and how many points did Lakers get outscored by?
Experiment, help get SGA in foul trouble: FAIL
LeBron is now 5-13 in playoff games against a defending champion – all four opponents coming since LeBron’s age-31 season. To claim he has dominated any era/decade is ignoring/not understanding how to interpret history. It’s a shame for players like LeBron that the NBA format is not 1-on-1. LeBron is now two losses away from getting BTA/embarrassed out of the playoffs in each of the four best-of-7 series levels over merely a nine-year span (‘18 Finals, swept; ‘23 WCF, swept; ‘24-‘25 WCFR, 5 games). If Lakers can manage to scrape together two wins, then LeBron avoids this rather dubious distinction for an all-time great.
?
He’s not getting embarrased. They’re playing without their best player against the defending champs and best team in the league, at their place.
LeBron is playing incredible. At 41 years old he’s just cementing his legacy to continue being able to play at this level. I’m still team MJ as far as the GOAT conversation is concerned but I’m in awe at what LeBron is doing.
He woulda been better served to have retired around the beginning of the decade, Hoopsjunkie. All he’s shown in the time since is that he continues to be the greatest coach killer who ever existed, that he cares more about his stats than winning, that his Kiutch Sports agency oversteps its boundaries and has highly questionable business practices, that he’s become one of the clumsiest and most fundamentally flawed players (setting illegal screens, traveling, elbowing players high and low to create space, dribbling into turnovers) in the league – not to mention, the longer he keeps playing, the percentage of coherent observers actually believing there could actually be one player (just ONE!), in the 80-year history of the league, who reaches his 40s and STILL consistently able to pivot and cut and jump and run up and down a court 80+ times with guys half his age…..that percentage of coherent observes will keep on plummeting. It’s good to be a skeptic and not believe everything you see and read in this day and age, Hoopsjunkie.
??
I believe what I see, and that’s a 41 year old LeBron who was the best player in the series that they won. Still doing alley oops, amazing passes, and winning. It’s incredible.
Dude, you are just a lebron hater. The guy is 41. If he is 35 this OKC team would lose….lol
In “that pivotal third quarter”, the refs combination of calls/no-calls from the 7:15 mark to 2:16 resulted in 10 ftas to zero for the Thunder and turned a 1 pt Lakers lead into a 12 pt deficit. The Lakers never recovered.
3 Lakers had 5 fouls, the most any OKC player had was 4 (SGA). Caruso had ZERO(!).
That is a clearcut example of the favorable officiating OKC routinely receives from the refs.
No, no, no. This is yet another unfounded conspiracy theory.
The consistent ref help for OKC is a fact, not a theory.
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
I think 2 things can be true at the same time here though. The Thunder are obviously a better team especially with Luka out and are going to easily win this series. That being said every team that plays them in these situations has the same complaints about the officiating. SGA gets one of the softness whistles ever while simultaneously Dort, and Caruso are allowed to foul on basically every possession and it rarely gets called.
I agree with this. Also, the quotes in the article are pretty clear that the Lakers weren’t blaming the losses on the refs.
Lakers 20 turnovers
Thunder 12
Lakers 4 fast break points
Thunder 14 fast break points
Lakers 14 points off turnovers
Thunder 26 points off turn overs
But refs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nah. Lakers screwed themselves (1) playing sloppy with 20 turnovers (2) lettting Thunder score 26 points off 20 turn overs.
All of that is true the Thunder are a much better team and going to win this series regardless of the refs. But as someone that is watching with no rooting interest it’s pretty clear they are just flatly officiated differently then any other team in the league. Every team that plays them has the same complaints. They are already elite they don’t need a clearly favorable whistle on-top of that.
When OKC’s defenders reach in, hit arms, and the refs ignore the fouls, usually the result is turnovers.
It’s funny how many people don’t understand that OKC’s success is based on how they’re allowed to foul constantly without getting called for more than a fraction of their fouls.
“ When Lakers defenders reach in, hit arms, and the refs ignore the fouls, usually the result is turnovers.”
Yeah it’s just OKC getting turn overs off non called fouls. Totally. 100% all Laker induced turnovers 100% were legal foul free plays.
lol you don’t seriously believe that do you?
Your point is moot cause BOTH teams get turn overs off situations that could be called a foul
I watch a lot of NBA games, and OKC fouls constantly. WAY more than their opponents, and many of the turnovers are from uncalled hacks. Obviously not 100% of them, that’s stupid.
Sure they do.
Meanwhile the actual way you can tell who gets calls vs non calls is free throw differential as in teams that get calls compared to teams that don’t get more free throws
And wouldn’t you know it the Lakers are routine leaders in free throw differentials throughout the season
22,23,24,25 lakers led the league in free throw differentials 4 years in a row
Thunder 21st 24th 29th 22-24
The best way to tell is by watching games. And turnover differential is equally valid evidence.
Just FYI, OKC shot more free throws than their opponents in the playoffs last season.
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.
@arc89
Lebron shot 1 fta in game 1 and 4 in gm 2. Holmgren and Mitchell flopped their way to 7 ftas each and SGA shot 9.
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.
Steph Curry is #1 worst superstar whistle, arguing anything else is just lies.
Lebron called the NBA front office and begged them to suspend Draymond in the Finals when they did not have to, they could have pushed that suspension into the following season.
Truth. Can you imagine if Steph got the whistle throughout his career as much as LeBron has?? Once he was over the ankle issues, Steph woulda easily averaged mid-30s every year KD wasn’t there! It woulda been too much for LeBron/Klutch/the league to accept – Steph humiliating LeBron 3 out of 4 times on a global stage when the stakes were at their highest, AND Steph being far and away the more talented and skilled offensive threat. Swallowing the whistle way more often for Steph than LeBron helped even the playing field a bit, but keen basketball observers obviously know which player had a bigger impact on the sport this century.
I love that you switch accounts to talk to yourself hahahah
*Too much for YOU to accept as well, washington_bonercats?
The refs must’ve forced the turnovers and the Thunder to shoot better from the field too…
“The refs must’ve forced the turnovers”
No-calls on OKC’s hacks become turnovers, so you’re right.
Get your brooms out cause the Thunder are sweeping LA. Even if the NBA tells the refs to get even, the Thunder will win. The series won’t matter cause the Lakers can’t win 4 games against them in any series, even with all of the refs help Lakers fans think their team deserves to get even.
Certainly that’s possible, but I think it’s more likely that LA wins 1 of the next 2 games.
This is a tough one for the conspiracy theorists. “The refs favor LeBron”, “the refs favor the Thunder, especially Gilgeous-Alexander.”; “the League wants the Lakers to win.” “The league wants OKC to win.”
Leap out with your personal brand of paranoia! Now is the time!!
I keep all the games on my home server.
Currently rewatching the 4th quarter, trying to look for any inconsistencies with on-ball and off-ball action:
– 1st minute absolutely fine, LeBron turned the ball over a couple of times on a bad pass and Dort’s good defence, OKC turned it over once and missed once.
– 11:00 McCain tries to fight over the screen, Smart anticipates that and gets the bump. But he didn’t gather before it, so even though he threw the ball at the rim, he didn’t get the shooting foul, but on the floor. Seems fine.
– Then it’s normal basketball for a minute, teams shooting some jumpers and one clear drive.
– 9:57 McCain defends Smart, Smart makes a step into McCain, there’s some contact, and then McCain, as he moves backwards, pokes the ball away. Smart gets the whistle. Honestly, it looks more like not a foul but good defence than a foul. One could argue that McCain was moving laterally, but idk.
I felt the decision went LAL’s way. That’s the first one.
– 9:46 Wallace drives and wants a bump call but doesn’t get it. Seems fair to me.
– 9:26 clear foul by iHart and a correct whistle.
– Then for a minute it’s normal basketball with a couple of jumpers by LAL and a clean drive by SGA.
– 8:04 Ayton loses the ball. He gets a small bump from behind, but it was him who was spinning and made that bump. Nothing there.
– A couple of seconds later, Reaves brings down SGA, crowd wants flagrant, but it’s ruled as common. I think that’s correct.
– Then there was a clean cool left-handed shot by LeBron and a 3-pointer by Chet.
– 7:01 Smart turns the ball over and grabs Caruso in transition. They ruled it as a common foul because “Defender was ahead”. But that seems like a transition take foul to me. That’s the 2nd decision that went in LAL’s favour.
– 6:47 Ayton clearly hits Holmgen on a midi-jumper. Good call.
– 6:35 Hachimura misses a jumper, Hayes not happy with what happened under the basket as he had the position, but Caruso came from the side and took the ball. Nothing there imo.
– 6:06 that’s a rare one. Both Williams and Hayes are whistled for a foul. Hayes was going over Williams, who had the inside position, and was grabbing his left arm, but Williams at the same time almost pulled Hayes’ pants down. Kinda funny, I don’t know what to make of it. LAL players acted as if it was a clear example of referee corruption or something. I don’t think it was.
Then both sets of players were frustrating and were fighting for a position for the jump ball.
– Then Wallace scored an open 3, and at 5:39 LeBron finds contact with Wallace and gets bumped. Just as Smart did before, LeBron anticipated that, but he did gather before the bump. And made that jumper. But they waived it off and gave the foul on the floor. That one went in OKC’s favour imo, should have been basket counts +1. That was the first unfair call against LAL in the quarter.
2-1 in LAL’s favour so far;
– 5:37 Reaves anticipates that Wallace is moving too fast, rises for the 3 and gets contact and a foul. Correct call. Then he misses the last FT, Hayes is too eager to get the rebound, goes through the back of Holmgren and commits a foul. Good call again.
– 5:19 Holmgren gets a good offensive rebound, turns, and as he wants to go up, Reaves takes a swipe and the ref whistles. They didn’t show a replay of that. The ball went out of Chet’s hands upward a little, like it happens when the arm is hit but not the ball. Reaves might have initially gotten the ball with his fingertips, and only then hit him on the forearm. It’s 50-50, hard to tell without a close replay. But Holmgren had the ball after that anyway, so OKC would’ve still had the possession and 12 seconds to play.
– 5:01 LeBron gets challenged at the rim and then on the rebound, both times looked like OKC players went vertically. 2nd play going for the rebound certainly looks clean, and the initial challenge by SGA also looks clean from the main camera. All good there.
– Then SGA makes a 3 and at 4:28 LeBron gets clearly fouled. The refs call it.
– The game gets stretched, Kennard scores and open layup and Wallace hits an open 3.
– 3:21 Reaves drives and draws the foul by Holmgren.
– 3:05 LAL are playing without Ayton, Holmgren outrebounds Reaves and scores a layup.
– Then Reaves scores a layup and SGA splits 2 defenders and does the same.
– 2:25 Smart shoots a 3, claims he was hit on a follow-up. But doesn’t protest too much as OKC are up by 17, and there’s only 2 minutes left to play.
Summary:
9:57 McCain foul is wrong for me. 7:01 Looked like a clear path foul by Smart but was ruled as a common. 5:39 should be an and-one for LeBron, but they ruled it on the floor.
That’s 2-1. And I couldn’t tell if that Reaves swipe was clean or not. If it was, it’s 2-2 as far as unfair decisions go. If it wasn’t, it’s 2-1 with LAL getting one extra favourable call.
General observations: LeBron made several well-executed plays, getting clean shots off. It wasn’t like he was constantly getting contact under the rim. So Reaves crying about LeBron getting no whistle makes no sense. Maybe Reaves was frustrated because OKC players cleverly pulled the chair on his drives a couple of times earlier in the game, and instead of getting contact like he often does, he went tumbling onto the floor. And was mad.
And LAL always doubled SGA. He found a pass almost every time, and OKC shot open jumpers or had an advantage under the rim and were able to grab rebounds.
Overall, I didn’t see biased refereeing either way. Couldn’t be bothered rewatching the other 3 quarters.
There you go. I doubt anyone will read this post, but anyway. :)
What was funny is the Lakers surrounding the Refs at the end of the game and OKC players laughing at the Refs. So will Silver come down on The lakers with heavy fines or give the Lakers a pass?
I love seeing this level of analysis on here, great work!
Remember the playoff game where lakers went to the line 29 times to warriors 9 times in a play in game? Lakers only won by 5 points. Lebron didn’t complain about that game.
“LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I’ve ever seen,” Redick said.”
So he has never watched Steph Curry play? He gets fouled almost every second he is out there lol
Floppy Curry you mean?
That’s what annoys me most when players complain about the refs.
Sometimes it’s totally justified and I get that. But if you only complain when it affects you and are mum when it affects your opponent no one should take you seriously because you can’t be trusted anymore than the refs can in a sense. Some would probably call that weak leadership; I call it having integrity. The players and coaches should be united on this issue; instead, they take turns playing the blame game.
Not saying the league can’t and shouldn’t do better with the officiating of course (and I really wish they would push harder on the union; I feel like they are the major stumbling block to reform).
Perfectly sensible take. LeFlop been doing that his entire career, but suddenly he has “the worst whistle”?? If anything Redick is right, the fact that Lebron went to the line after flopping THAT many times, really made the league much worse.
Meanwhile Curry’s arms are drenched in blood every game from being grabbed 24-7 by hapless defenders. Til we see that from SGA or Bron, they have easy/soft whistles, and Curry has the hardest/worst whistle in NBA history.
I very much appreciate this analysis. I don’t have Prime at the moment, so I didn’t see the game. Even as a Lakers fan, I’ve always been about calling a game fairly. I would love it if players just focused on the game and not getting a whistle on every single drive to the hoop. I know drawing fouls is part of the game, but come on.
looks like the Refs were not calling fouls at all. OKC could complain too. It might be just JJ and LeBron trying to get Refs for game 3 to give them favorable calls.
The worst part is that in prior seasons, the unwritten rule was in the playoffs the refs put their whistles away and just let them hoop unless its a really bad foul. If there is no whistle, there is no flopping. But they stopped doing that, so now we get flopping in the playoffs.
“I would love it if players just focused on the game and not getting a whistle on every single drive to the hoop.”
Amen to that.
This is the match-up between two teams that tend to dictate terms and manipulate the refs into making calls that they (teams) are comfortable with. But they do it differently.
LAL have crafty guards with very good body control in Doncic and Reaves, who know how to frustrate defences and either get the shots they want or generate contact. Also, Reddick did a good job of getting a rather defensively-challenged group to be pesky on that side, led by their best defender Smart, and puzzle opponents who expect an easy walk through a team with the oldest guy in basketball and a couple of unathletic white guys.
OKC tend to bend the game their way, too, but differently. They do it through pressure, always having a fresh guy pick up the other team’s ball handler, leaving opponents as little space as possible, giving them just enough room to take a bad jumper, and walking the tight line between suffocating defense and fouling. They took it to such an extreme that even the most devoted worshipers of “Nobody plays defense in the modern NBA. Bring back the 90s!” ideology despise them.
And they have SGA.
In a clash where both sides are used to dictating terms, it was bound that one of them would feel like they’ve been treated unfairly when they fail to impose their game.
By the 4thqtr, OKC already got the game in the bag…12 minutes is just a fraction of 48…lol
OKC does not have to flop, clearly they are better than the Lakers, smh
Thanks for the analysis, unfortunately thhe key quarter was the 3rd, where OKC was +14.
We get it, everyone here hates the Lakers. If the Dubs were playing OKC right now this board would be exploding with tears.
Yup. This forum hates LBJ and loves GSW…lol
Ginal score Thunder 125 — Lakers 107.
So the refs gave them 18 pts.
😳😳🥹🥲😫😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😢😫
Lakers had 26 fouls. They shot 18/21 FTs
Thunder had 21 fouls. They shot 21-26 FTs
So those THREE pts definitely Won the game LMAO
JJ even said the refs didn’t decide the game. He just thinks LeBron doesn’t get enough calls. Every head coach thinks that about their top guy. The big problem was 13 turnovers in the 2nd half. I think OKC only had 3 or 5. You can’t do that against most teams, but especially the Thunder, and hope to win.
But the turnovers are a direct result of not getting called for fouls on steals that were not ball.
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not. All 13 2nd half turnovers were fouls?
Nobody flops more than okc
Maybe the knicks
Knicks are nowhere near as bad as OKC. Only Brunson flops on the Knicks and he doesn’t do it very often. Brunson gets less than 6 FTA/game despite high usage and plenty of drives. You can maybe make an argument for KAT, but he has a horrible whistle, and also gets called for a million fouls, so it ain’t working.
Everyone on OKC flops. SGA, Chet, even Hartenstein has flop videos on youtube. If you think the Knicks are anywhere near OKC, you flat out do not watch them. OG, Bridges, Hart, Mitch, Clarkson, McBride, Shamet, Alvarado, none of these dudes flop. Go actually watch a game, please. You might like it.
Feel better
I always thought it was the lakers by a long shot. Reeves, LeBron, and Luka all flop. Watch how Reeves pulls his head back all the time to get FTs.
Paul Pierce used to do that on every drive and make a face. Refs called it all the time.
i hate those calls. i rather see the Refs let both teams play through and only call the ovious fouls.
Yes!
A few things can be true. OKC flops and complains and influences refs to a higher degree than any team in the league. They’re also great at team ball, defense, and hitting shots.
The refs were terrible last night. They’ve been pretty bad all postseason and all teams have benefited a little here and there. They’re calling far too many fouls for the postseason, if you ask me. They called 47 fouls last night, about one per minute. Who wants to see that? Playoffs should be fewer fouls and more physical. No one wants to see ticky tack garbage in the playoffs.
Last year they were not calling fouls and letting them play. As long as the calls are fair and no ticky tack fouls I do not mind. There will always be home town calls in every game.
That’s exactly why ugly ball wins in the playoffs. Teams like the Thunder and T’wolves and others know the refs usually won’t call that many fouls and so assault guys on one end and scream bloody murder when touched on the other. THERE IS NO NEUTRAL STYLE OF OFFICIATING. Refs can be as fair as they like, but if they call it tight certain teams benefit, and if they call it loose other teams do. So whole series are determined by which refs get randomly assigned.
Only way to fix it if the Refs start calling Ts on every flop that shows no foul happened or if the flop is over exagerated to get a call.
@rct
You’re right – the amount of calls on flops (SGA, Chet, Ajay, JWill, Caruso), players pretending they got hit in the face when replays show no such thing (Chet) and marginal contact with all the stoppages and timeouts makes the game almost unwatchable.
Maybe JJ saying Lebron gets hit and doesn’t get calls is partially because half the time anyone comes near him he flops and falls like he’s been shot. Little bit of boy who cried wolf going on with LBJ.
Hardest to ref series ever. Both teams filled with foul-grifters and floppers. It’s ugly, ugly ball, and although I’m sure nothing will be done because it is pulling ratings, it is a very hard watch.
Lakers whinging at officials. Awesome. I do hate watching SGA though. Yet to watch a single game that okc have played, not one, and won’t.
Jj”s not wrong ; Lebrons whistle has all but disappeared the last 5 years but with Luka on the roster ( and Reaves to and extent/ Moreso 23/24 seasons ) I can’t blame fans for not sympathizing
I don’t like Reddick or LeBron, but JJ is spot on. Stronger players don’t get as many calls. I assume JJ is talking about Dort. That guy fouls all the time.