JJ Redick is already in peak playoff form, not because the Los Angeles Lakers are winning games, but because he’s mastered the ancient NBA tradition of blaming the refs after getting smacked on national TV.
The Lakers got cooked 125-107 by the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals Thursday night, and apparently the real crime wasn’t the defense, it was the whistles.
After the loss, Lakers guard Austin Reaves marched right up to crew chief John Goble at center court looking like a man trying to dispute hidden charges on his phone bill. Reaves clearly had thoughts.
Then came Redick. The head coach grabbed the microphone during his postgame press conference and basically launched a full blast review of the officiating crew.
“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.”
Redick, who was called for a technical foul with 1:26 remaining in the first quarter for screaming at referee Ben Taylor about what he perceived as missed calls, said the officiating has been particularly poor for LeBron James this series.
Now listen, every coach complains about refs in the playoffs. It’s basically an NBA side quest. But blaming officials after giving up 125 points is like blaming your smoke detector after setting the kitchen on fire.
“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.”
Still, you can’t count out a team with LeBron James. But if the Lakers want to get back into this series, they may need to focus less on referee conspiracies and more on not letting Oklahoma City score whenever it feels like it.
Courtesy of Black Sports Online
