It wasn’t the usual postgame huddle one typically sees at an NBA game.
On Thursday, Lakers guard Austin Reaves confronted crew chief John Goble at center court after the Thunder beat his team 125–107 to go up 2–0 in the Western Conference semifinals. The rest of the Lakers joined him.
Shortly after, Lakers coach JJ Redick lambasted the officiating in his postgame press conference.
“I sarcastically said the other day, they’re the most disruptive team without fouling,” Redick told reporters, referring to the Thunder. “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.”
It’s the latest in the officials’ increasingly personal and tense relationship with players and coaches that has hung over the past two NBA seasons. In December, Rockets coach Ime Udoka was fined $25,000 after he called one official “starstruck” after a Houston loss to the Nuggets in which three incorrect calls were made down the stretch. It came the same week in which Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff alleged his games weren’t being called fairly based on his interactions with officials.
The officials have clapped back with the National Basketball Referees Association’s X account posting its own take on some controversial calls. The collective bargaining agreement that was reached between the NBA and NBRA in 2022 expires in 2029.
As for Thursday night, Reaves followed Redick’s comments with some of his own.
With roughly six minutes left in the game, officials changed a loose-ball foul on Thunder forward Jalen Williams to a double foul on both Williams and Lakers center Jaxson Hayes after both players battled for a rebound on the play. The call reversal took possession away from the Lakers and became a jump ball at center county between both players.
Before the jump ball, Reaves said Goble went off on him as he tried to change his position for it.
“I felt like I was respectful to all of them all night,” Reaves told reporters. “I mean, there’s a million times in the past I’ve said way worse stuff,” Reaves said. “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.”
While Reaves didn’t receive a technical, Redick did in the first quarter for shouting at Ben Taylor, another official working the game, for a several no-calls on LeBron James.
“LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I’ve ever seen,” Redick said postgame. “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,” Redick added. “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.”
James has shot just five total free throws through the first two games of the series, despite averaging as many per game in the regular season. When James was asked about the officiating, all he said is, “We’re down 2–0.”
Neither Reaves nor Redick has been fined for their comments as of Friday morning. A league spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
