A better whistle won’t solve Lakers’ real problems against Thunder

OKLAHOMA CITY — As the Los Angeles Lakers publicly and privately vented their anger with officials Thursday night after losing Game 2 to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the cases they made were compelling.

Video did seem to show Jaxson Hayes had his shorts pulled down as he went for a rebound (a play that would end up being a double foul). Video did seem to show one official turning and yelling into Austin Reaves’ face as the Lakers and Thunder danced around the center circle, looking for the best positions ahead of a key jump ball. LeBron James did seem to get slapped, grabbed, hit and held.

“LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I’ve ever seen,” coach JJ Redick said after the 125-107 loss. “I mean, I’ve been with him two years now. There’s, again, 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.”

During the two games in which he’s operated frequently out of the post and attempted 15 shots in the paint, James has taken just five free throws.

“He got clobbered again tonight a bunch,” Redick said.

The Lakers can present all the evidence they want to the league. They can share their grievances, express their anger and make their case. None of it has mattered through the first two games of this second-round series, not when the problems are so much bigger.

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A perceived bad whistle isn’t close to the biggest problem the Lakers are facing.

Over 96 minutes in the Western Conference semifinals, the real disadvantages the Lakers are facing have been more obvious than a missed foul, more impactful than an earned free throw.

As they throw coverages at presumed two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Lakers have been repeatedly punished. And when they’ve overcome those big shots from Chet Holmgren, Jaylin Williams and Jared McCain, the Lakers have given the basketball away. They are playing a team that’s greater than its individual parts.

The Lakers, it looks like, are running the mile. The Thunder, it seems, have taken this on as a relay race, passing the baton from one fresh-legged dagger-thrower to another each time the game starts a new lap.

McCain open in transition — death. Holmgren, the second Deandre Ayton’s hands drop a little too low — a fatal blow. Cason Wallace in the far corner, Williams above the break, Ajay Mitchell in the midrange, Isaiah Hartenstein in the pocket … they were everywhere.

While players complained about the calls they didn’t get or the disrespect they felt from interactions with officials, they also had to be frustrated with the feeling that they’ve spent a majority of the last two games either playing at or — at times — above the Thunder’s level, only to leave town having been out-scored by 36 points.

The series, as it shifts back to Los Angeles, has been in some ways closer than the scoring gap. However, the margins themselves show just how little time the Lakers have left and how difficult it is for them to get within 10 points, let alone win four times.

They’ve taken Gilgeous-Alexander, one of the smoothest players in the league, and forced him into staccato possessions. In Game 1, they did it with double-teams. In Game 2, they did it by adding foul trouble to the recipe and pushing Gilgeous-Alexander into rhythmless basketball.

It’s been the top-line item on the Lakers’ game plan, and they’ve mostly made it work.

But the strategy has come at a cost, with the Lakers scrambling once they send a double-team SGA’s way. They, unlike the Thunder, don’t have an Alex Caruso or a Luguentz Dort or a Wallace to unleash on a star player. They need to do it as a collective — and they’ve paid by seeing their players run around the court only to gas out in the end — two games that have looked close have fallen apart in the final half of the fourth quarter twice.

“We’re down 2-0,” James said when asked about the officiating.

Maybe James wanted to save his money and avoid the fines for publicly criticizing the referees. Maybe he understood that even if he’d have gone to the line for 10 more free throws, it wouldn’t have mattered.

Despite protests on the court, LeBron James avoided criticizing officials after the game.Alonzo Adams / Imagn Images

James didn’t say much after Game 2, maybe because he knew that if he did, it would sound a whole lot like what he said about the Thunder during the regular season. When the Lakers fumbled their best chance to beat Oklahoma City in early February, a reporter asked him about the gap between the two teams.

“You want me to compare us to them?” he said incredulously. “… That’s a championship team right there. We’re not. … We can’t sustain energy and effort for 48 minutes, and they can. That’s why they won the championship.”

The Lakers have improved since that game and have become a tougher, more consistent team. They did it in the first round against the Houston Rockets. Reaves, whose future with the franchise and as a free agent was deeply scrutinized after a miserable Game 1, bounced back to score 31 in Game 2.

However, he took no victory lap postgame.

“Just played basketball,” Reaves said blankly.

James again defied age, following up 27 points with 23 in Game 2. Like Reaves bouncing back, it didn’t matter. Rui Hachimura, again showing he’s ready to take and make important shots in the playoffs, didn’t matter either.

Because for the Lakers to win in this series, they need those guys to play well. They need Ayton to be stronger with the ball and to finish with force. They need Marcus Smart to hound Gilgeous-Alexander without fouling while still having the legs to bang open 3s and make the right plays as a ballhandler. They need their bench to execute and energize.

And they need the Thunder to miss shots. And they need to get a good whistle. A healthy Luka Dončić might’ve changed things; the Lakers don’t have that.

Against the Thunder, it’s not one thing or the other — it’s everything. And it’s that way because with the Thunder, it feels like they’ve got even more everything to throw back.