{"id":657753,"date":"2026-05-08T13:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657753\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:00:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:00:24","slug":"lebron-has-the-worst-whistle-of-any-star-lakers-rip-officiating-after-playoff-loss-to-thunder-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657753\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018LeBron has the worst whistle of any star\u2019: Lakers rip officiating after playoff loss to Thunder | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lakers coach JJ Redick criticized the way LeBron James is officiated and guard Austin Reaves complained about treatment from the referees after Los Angeles lost 125-107 to the host Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

A number of Lakers players gathered around the referees at midcourt after the game and Reaves voiced his frustration to crew chief John Goble. He felt that while players were jockeying for position during a jump ball during the game, Goble crossed the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019re grown men and I just didn\u2019t feel like he needed to yell in my face like that,\u201d Reaves said. \u201cI told him that. I wasn\u2019t disrespectful. I told him if I did that to him first, I would\u2019ve gotten a tech. I feel like the only reason I didn\u2019t get a tech was because he knew he was in the wrong. I felt disrespected.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Austin Reaves and the Lakers voice their frustrations to the referees after Thursday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Reaves, Marcus Smart and Jaxson Hayes all finished with five fouls. The Thunder took 26 free throws to 21 for the Lakers. The loss sends Los Angeles home facing a 2-0 deficit heading into Game 3 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Redick doesn\u2019t think a team with the No 1 seed and the reigning MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander needs extra help from the officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re hard enough to play,\u201d Redick said. \u201cThey\u2019re hard to play, and you\u2019ve got to be able to just call them. They foul. They do foul.\u201d<\/p>\n

James, still effective at attacking the rim at age 41, has attempted just five free throws in two games in the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I\u2019ve ever seen. The smaller guys, because they can be theatric, they typically draw more fouls, and the bigger players that are built like LeBron, it\u2019s hard for them,\u201d Redick said. \u201cThey get clobbered, and he got clobbered again tonight a bunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

On several occasions, Lakers players were incredulous after calls \u2013 or no-calls \u2013 from the crew. While the Lakers talked to the officials during and after the game, the Thunder players stayed calm. Redick believes that might have helped them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think some of the reason that they\u2019re officiated the way they are is because they don\u2019t show emotion,\u201d Redick said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a credit to them. I mean, they really take the emotion out of the game. They\u2019re super tight-knit. They don\u2019t complain to the officials, and maybe they\u2019re the beneficiaries of that, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren each scored 22 points for the Thunder. Ajay Mitchell had 20 points and Jared McCain added 18 for the defending champion Thunder, who improved to 6-0 in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Reaves scored 31 points on 10-for-16 shooting, while James, coming off a 27-point effort in Game 1, followed that up with 23. The Lakers again were without scoring champion Luka Don\u010di\u0107, who is out indefinitely<\/a> with a strained left hamstring.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles will host Game 3 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavaliers 97-107 Detroit Pistons<\/p>\n

Cade Cunningham had 25 points and 10 assists, Tobias Harris scored 21 points, and the Detroit Pistons beat the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> 107-97 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in their second-round series.<\/p>\n

Game 3 is Saturday in Cleveland, where the Cavs were 4-0 in the first round against Toronto.<\/p>\n

The top-seeded Pistons have won five straight games since Orlando put them on the brink of elimination in the first round.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to keep swinging,\u201d reserve guard Daniss Jenkins said. \u201cWe\u2019re still trying to prove something to ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donovan Mitchell scored 31 points and Jarrett Allen had 22 points and seven rebounds, bouncing back from a poor performance in Game 1 for the fourth-seeded Cavs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lakers coach JJ Redick criticized the way LeBron James is officiated and guard Austin Reaves complained about treatment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-657753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}