Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick claimed LeBron James was victimised by officials due to his size after the Oklahoma City Thunder eased into a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference semi-finals on Thursday night.
James scored 23 points as the Thunder won 125-107 but was twice called for dubious fouls while contact on him was repeatedly overlooked by the match crew. After averaging 5.3 free throw attempts during the regular season, the 41-year-old has shot just five free throws combined over the first two games of the 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.”
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Lakers star Reaves confronts crew chief Goble
The officiating was an issue for the Lakers all night with Austin Reaves confronting crew chief John Goble after the game.
Reaves was particularly unhappy at the way Goble shouted at him in the final quarter as he waited to contest a jump ball.
“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.”
And while LA fought a running battle with the officials, the Thunder kept pouring in the points. Oklahoma have found a way to play tough without getting called and Redick admitted a quiet admiration for the defending champions.
“I sarcastically said the other day, they’re the most disruptive team without fouling,” Redick said. “I mean, they have a few guys that foul on every possession. … They’re hard enough to play. They’re hard enough to play, you’ve got to be able to just call them if they foul, and they do foul.
“I think some of the reason [the Thunder are] officiated the way they are is because they don’t show emotion, and that’s a credit to them. I mean, they’ve really been taking 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.”
Thunder see off Lakers despite limited impact by Gilgeous-Alexander
The Thunder’s win was made more remarkable by the fact they played without star man Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for most of the third quarter after he collected his fourth foul early in the second half.
That coincided with a 22-4 run that turned the game in the Thunder’s favour.
“It was amazing,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 22 points. “They strung together stops, and they played the right way offensively. I’ve got full confidence in those guys. Those guys know how to win basketball games. They’ve proven that. We’ve proven that. No matter who’s on the floor, we can get the job done.”
“We’ve got guys that are competitors,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “They see the challenges of the game as opportunities, and they attack them.”
Game Three is in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
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