The Lakers lost to the Thunder 125-107, leading to criticism of officiating from JJ Redick and Austin Reaves. They claimed the whistles favored the Thunder, adding to the playoff narrative.
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JJ Redick, Austin Reaves call out officiating for 'disrespectful' whistles favoring Thunder over Lakers originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Thunder took a 2-0 lead over the Lakers with a 125-107 win in Game 2 on Thursday night, but much of the conversation after was about the officiating.
Los Angeles was once again frustrated by Oklahoma City's perceived favorable whistle in the game, something that is becoming a major storyline for the Thunder in the playoffs. Unsurprisingly, the Lakers were outspoken with the media about how they felt the officiating was too lopsided.
Most notably, head coach JJ Redick and point guard Austin Reaves had their moment criticizing the referees, both to the media and directly to the officials themselves. Los Angeles now has to win four of the remaining five games in order to avoid being eliminated from the playoffs, and the team showed that level of urgency on Thursday night.
JJ Redick and Austin Reaves criticized the officiating for being 'disrespectful' and favoring the Thunder during their playoff game.
The Lakers lost Game 2 to the Thunder with a score of 125-107, putting them in a challenging position in the playoffs.
The Lakers must win four out of the next five games to avoid being eliminated from the playoffs.
There has been significant frustration from the Lakers regarding the officiating, which they believe has been lopsided in favor of the Thunder.
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Here's what Redick and Reaves had to say about the officials.
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After Game 2, JJ Redick heavily criticized the officiating, arguing that the Thunder are getting away with fouls on the defensive end while getting favorable calls on the offensive end.
"I sarcastically said the other day, they're the most disruptive team without fouling," Redick said. "They have a few guys that foul on every possession, and all the good defenses do...They're hard enough to play, you've got to be able to just call them if they foul, and they do foul."
In each of the first two games of this series, the Lakers have lost the foul battle, first by two fouls in Game 1 then by five fouls in Game 2.
Redick also specifically mentioned LeBron James' lack of calls, going as far as to say James has the "worst whistle of any star player."
"LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I've ever seen," Redick said. "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 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 happen. The guy gets hit on the head more than any player I've seen on drives, and it rarely gets called."
During the regular season, the Lakers averaged the second-most free throw attempts per game in the league, only behind the Magic. However, in the playoffs, Los Angeles ranks 10th among 16 teams.
The highlight of the game ended up being a moment once the game ended, when Austin Reaves led the Lakers with what appeared to be an intense meeting with the refs before going back to the locker room.
Reaves told the media that, besides all of the team's fouling issues, he believed the officials disrespected him during the game.
"He turned around and just yelled in my face, just thought that was disrespectful... 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. I told him if I did that to him first, I would've gotten a tech," Reaves said. "Felt like the only reason I didn't get a tech is cause he knew he was in the wrong. I just felt disrespected."