There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and frustration with the way the Oklahoma City Thunder are officiated. It has become one of the stories of their ascent to the top of the NBA: the better they get, the angrier their opponents are over the things they’re allowed to get away with.
As usual, the Thunder controlled Thursday night’s Game 2 with their overwhelmingly physical defense, forcing 20 Laker turnovers. They also won the free-throw margin, 26-21, something of a rarity for a Laker team that attempted the second-most free throws per game in the regular season while allowing the third-fewest. Despite taking nine of his 18 shots at or near the basket, LeBron James attempted just four free throws in the game; when you factor in the single attempt he had in Game 1, he has taken just five thus far in the series.
By the end of Game 2, the Lakers were seemingly fed up. Austin Reaves was caught on camera in a heated confrontation with official John Goble around the halfway mark of the fourth quarter, and then, after the final buzzer, a group of Lakers led by Reaves confronted the officials at mid-court.
After the game, Reaves explained the initial blowup between him and Goble, citing an interaction that came as he attempted to move to match a Thunder player while lining up for a jump ball between Jaxson Hayes and Chet Holmgren with 6:06 remaining in the fourth quarter. “He turned around and just yelled in my face, just thought that was disrespectful,” 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 if I did that to him first, I would’ve gotten a tech. Felt like the only reason I didn’t get a tech is cause he knew he was in the wrong. I just felt disrespected.”
Though Reaves was upset about a specific incident, Lakers coach JJ Redick expressed a broader frustration. “I sarcastically said the other day they were the most disruptive team without fouling. They have a few guys that foul on every possession, and all of the good defenses do,” he said. “SGA got like a, I don’t even know, a touch foul on a drive. There was a stretch where, like, four straight possessions, our guys got absolutely clobbered. Tried to make an entry pass to Jaxson and Jaylin Williams was grabbing his jersey with both arms, and (that ends up being) a turnover. They’re hard enough to play. They’re hard enough to play. You gotta be able to just call it if they foul. And they do foul.”
Afterward, Redick shared another, more pointed critique, though not specifically at the Thunder, instead arguing that James doesn’t get officiated appropriately against anybody. “LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I’ve ever seen,” Redick said. “I’ve been with him two years now. Again, the smaller guys, because they can be theatric, they typically draw more fouls. And the bigger players who are built like LeBron, it’s hard for them. They get clobbered, and he got clobbered again tonight a bunch. That’s not like a new thing, that’s not specific to this crew or this series. He gets fouled a lot. 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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When James was asked about Redick’s comment that he gets the worst whistle of any star, James replied simply, “I don’t know,” likely trying to avoid a fine. After all, he wouldn’t be the first star to draw one after a game against the Thunder this postseason.
This is the second Game 2 the Thunder have played this postseason, and in both, there has been some officiating-related controversy afterward. Devin Booker was fined $35,000 after Phoenix’s Game 2 loss to the Thunder for calling out a specific referee in his postgame press conference. “In my 11 years, I haven’t called a ref out by name, but James [Williams] was terrible tonight through and through,” Booker said. “It’s bad for the sport, bad for the integrity of the sport. People are going to start viewing this as a WWE if they’re not held responsible.”
One of his teammates, Dillon Brooks, expressed another common complaint: that the Thunder flop too much. “When I used to watch this back when Michael Jordan was playing, or whoever else, when LeBron (James) was younger, it was physical basketball,” Brooks said. “I don’t get why all the falling, the flopping and flailing and all this stuff is allowed when we get to the playoffs. Leave that for the (regular) season, for the fans. This is about who is the better team, who is the [smarter] team. Don’t decide the games on free throws.”
Officiating has become one of the defining stories of this Oklahoma City run. They have what is statistically one of the greatest defenses of all time, yet there is a prevailing belief among both fans and, seemingly, players and coaches that they get away with a level of physicality defensively that other teams don’t. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is likely to win his second consecutive MVP award, yet his skill in drawing fouls is what drives opponents crazy. Opponents have been complaining about how the Thunder are officiated all season. Little has changed, and the Thunder haven’t yet lost a playoff game. If anyone is going to meaningfully challenge them, it probably won’t come through drastic changes to their whistle.