The Los Angeles Lakers lost Game 2. Then they stayed on the court to argue about it.
Several Lakers players gathered around the referees at midcourt after the Oklahoma City Thunder beat them 125-107 on Thursday night, with Austin Reaves leading the conversation with crew chief John Goble. It was not a calm debrief. Reaves felt Goble had crossed a line during a jump ball sequence when Reaves was jockeying for position with a Thunder player, and he made that clear after the final buzzer.
“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’ve gotten a tech. I feel like the only reason I didn’t get a tech was because he knew he was in the wrong. I felt disrespected.”
Reaves, Marcus Smart, and Jaxson Hayes all fouled out with 5 fouls each. The Thunder shot 26 free throws to the Lakers’ 21.
JJ Redick Goes Further on LeBron
The frustration did not stop with the players. Lakers coach JJ Redick was pointed in his post-game comments—particularly about how LeBron James is treated by officials.
James, still capable of attacking the rim at 41, has attempted just five free throws across the first two games of this series.
“LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I’ve ever seen,” Redick said. “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. They get clobbered, and he got clobbered again tonight a bunch.”
Redick did not limit his criticism to the calls on James. “They’re hard enough to play,” he said of the Thunder. “They’re hard to play, and you’ve got to be able to just call them. They foul. They do foul.”
An Unintended Compliment to Oklahoma City
One of the more revealing moments of Redick’s press conference came when he acknowledged the Thunder’s composure—and suggested it might be working in their favour with the referees.
“I think some of the reason that they’re officiated the way they are is because they don’t show emotion,” Redick said. “They really take the emotion out of the game. They’re super tight-knit. They don’t complain to the officials, and maybe they’re the beneficiaries of that, I don’t know.”
It was, in effect, a coaching lesson delivered by the opposing coach. While the Lakers were gathered at midcourt after the game arguing their case to referees who had already made their calls, the Thunder players were in their locker room. Oklahoma City leads this series 2-0. They are 6-0 in the playoffs. They did not need to say a word after Thursday night.
The series goes to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Sunday. The Lakers have a genuine officiating grievance to nurse, a 2-0 series deficit to overcome, and still no Luka Doncic. None of those things change before game day.
