Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick didn’t mince words about the officiating after a 125-107 setback to the Oklahoma Thunder on Thursday in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals.
Redick took issue with star LeBron James enduring what he feels to be consistent physical play from the Thunder. What’s worse in the eyes of Redick is that James — a four-time NBA MVP and 22-time All-Star — only has five free-throw attempts during the first two contests of the best-of-seven series.
“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.”
While James opted to play it cool with his post-game comments — “We’re down 2-0” was all he said when asked about the officiating — Lakers guard Austin Reaves confronted crew chief John Goble at center court after the game.
Reaves took issue with Goble for losing his cool during a jump-ball situation with 5:53 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“I felt like I was respectful to all of them all night. I mean, there’s a million times in the past I’ve said way worse stuff,” Reaves said. “And when we were doing the whole jump ball when (the Thunder players) were switching spots, I wanted to get on the other side because they had a guy on the other side, was just trying to keep an advantage. And (Goble) turned around and just yelled in my face. I just thought it 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 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.”
Reaves scored 31 points and James added 23 on Thursday for the Lakers, who will host Game 3 on Saturday.
