The Los Angeles Lakers have a few words to say after their Game 2 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Both about the officials and in person.
After the final buzzer, Lakers star Austin Reeves joined his teammates in expressing their displeasure to the officials on the court. This isn’t something you see very often.
Overall, this was a controversial game.
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Especially in the second half, the Lakers were irritated by multiple penalties. At one point, LeBron James was heard yelling at team captain John Goble: “What the f*ck are you talking about? You f*ck up, man,” according to Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic.
One jump ball in particular had Reeves riled up, and he had to reset several times before play started again.
After the Lakers left the court, head coach Redick made similarly frustrated remarks to reporters. Among other things, he claimed that James has historically been cheated on foul calls:
“LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I’ve ever seen. I’ve been with him for two years. Smaller guys, because they can be dramatic, usually draw more fouls. And guys as big as LeBron, it’s hard for them.
“He got hit a lot again tonight. It’s nothing new and it’s not unique to this series. He got fouled a lot and that didn’t happen. Guy got hit in the head more times than any player I’ve ever seen on a breakout and rarely got called.
James, meanwhile, was dismissive of the comments made by referees in the locker room, replying “I don’t know” when asked about his old podcast partner’s comments.
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Redick pointed out multiple other frustrating aspects:
“They have some guys that foul every time they have the ball, and all good defenses foul. [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander] Fouled while breaking through. During one stretch, our players were soundly defeated on four consecutive possessions. Trying to give Jaxon a pass [Hayes] Jaylin Williams grabbed his jersey with both arms.
“It’s hard enough for them to fight. If they foul, and they do, you can call a penalty.”
Redick continued: “We didn’t lose because of the referees. That’s not the case…Oklahoma City beat us.”
In terms of quantity, the Thunder got more free throw opportunities in the game, 26 times compared to the Lakers’ 21 times, and they were called for fewer fouls, 21 times compared to the Lakers’ 26 times. They also committed fewer turnovers (12 to 20) and rebounded more (46 to 37) while posting the highest field goal percentage of the playoffs (55.6 percent).
Regardless of how they did it, the Lakers fell to 0-2 in the Western Conference semifinals this season and 0-6 in games including the regular season. Game 3 is scheduled for Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC) at Crypto.com Arena.
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We’ll see if officials take these criticisms to heart.