Austin Reaves felt disrespected and summoned the referees straight after the final whistle, while JJ Redick blasted their officiating decisions. The Los Angeles Lakers had more than a few calls against them, but here is why the complaining won’t work in their favor. Charles Barkley, who has seen all kinds of flopping and complaining, chimed in.
“I will admit I’ve never seen anything like that,” began Chuck on The Dan Patrick Show. “Last night where an entire team go around the refs, I’d never seen that in my life. I’m close to 50 years now. I’d never seen that in my life where a whole team goes around referees after the game. That was pretty interesting.” But here is why it won’t work for them. “I don’t think that can help them in any capacity.
“Because now the referees are going to be like, ‘Well, if we start calling fouls for the Lakers, they’re going to think that tactic works.’ So I didn’t see any positive about that, to be honest with you.” The Hall of Famer added that if the calls now go in favor of the Purple and Gold franchise, there will be extended media scrutiny. If the narrative after Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals was that the officials’ whistle had bias for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Then the narrative after Game 3, will state the same for the Lakers. In any case, it won’t help the claims that JJ Redick and co., made.
The Lakers’ head coach was pretty vocal and blunt with his judgment following the 125-107 loss on Thursday. “I sarcastically said the other day, they’re the most disruptive team without fouling,” Redick said. “They’re hard enough to play, you’ve got to be able to just call them if they foul, and they do foul.” JJ also stated that LeBron James had the worst whistle of any player he has ever seen in the league. He was alluding to the fact that the 22x All-Star only went to the free-throw line 5 times in two games to back his point.
Dirk Nowitzki offers a similar suggestion to Charles Barkley
On the stat sheet, the Lakers were called for 26 fouls in Game 2; the Thunder were called for 21. But LeBron James incorrect charge call on Alex Caruso, not getting a call for a foul for Jaylin Williams’ contact, and not counting his continuation jump shot were some of the calls, especially on Bron, which were missed. But like Charles Barkley said, the officials won’t start course-correcting their foul calls and favor them. Similar advice came from Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki.
“The Lakers are the team that usually always wins the FT battle,” Nowitzki joked on NBA Prime. “This is a little new to them that they’re getting clobbered a lot. But you need to work the refs, you need to reposition yourself for the next game, and I think that’s just part of the playoffs.” JJ Redick and co were in the top three in free throws in the regular season (26.8 attempts per game). But the absence of Luka Doncic, who has attempted 10.1 attempts from the charity stripe, remains a big miss.
Similarly, LeBron James average from 5.3 has come down to 2.5 in the Semifinal round. So, yes, it is difficult for the Lakers to adjust against OKC, who have SGA to bait for fouls. But the Purple and Gold franchise has to adapt and not complain.
