The Lakers had plenty of self-inflicted wounds in Sunday’s loss to the Celtics.
Both a lack of effort and a lack of execution doomed them, bitter pills to swallow in a rivalry game. But while it may not have ultimately affected the outcome of the game, officiating was also a big storyline.
Across the course of the contest, though mostly in the first half, the Lakers had some fair complaints toward the officials. At least one missed goaltending call and questionable foul calls culminated in a sequence in which both Austin Reaves and Marcus Smart received technical fouls.
The technicals came after Jaylen Brown appeared to elbow Smart in the face on a play when Smart was called for a foul.
Reaves was assessed a technical immediately after the foul for clapping at the official. Smart protested for quite a while after before eventually earning his own technical After the contest, Reaves was asked about hte play, leading to some larger thoughts on what is and isn’t a technical in the league now.
“I mean, I thought (Jaylen Brown) elbowed Marcus [Smart] in the face,” Reaves said. “I didn’t say anything disrespectful. He told me I got a tech because I clapped my hands. I just said, ‘Offensive foul’ over and over again. I kind of walked by him, didn’t turn around and say anything else. But he told me that it’s an automatic tech when you clap, I guess, towards a ref.
“I don’t know. I’ve heard way more disrespectful things said to officials and nothing, no tech or anything. But yeah, I mean, there’s a level of frustration. You want to stand up for your teammates. But alsoI know he elbowed him in the face and might have fouled him before. But yeah, I didn’t think that it warranted a tech, but it’s not for me to say.”
Complaints about officials always land pretty hollow after a blowout loss to a rival, but it doesn’t mean they’re wrong either. Officiating was, at best, lackluster in this contest and the Lakers were on the wrong end of things.
That being said, they also let the poor officiating impact their play. Every questionable play became an opportunity to complain to the refs again. The focus shifted from the game to the officials and Boston took full advantage, opening up a double-digit lead late in the second quarter that changed the game.
For as little or much as it matters, Reaves acknowledged that the Lakers can’t let that happen moving forward.
“When you don’t get those calls, you can’t stay frustrated,” Reaves said. “You got to move on to the next play. I’m a culprit of that. I got to do better in that situation and our whole team does as well.”
Unfortunately, this has become a trait of this Lakers team. It’s pretty easy to point the finger at Luka Dončić, but this is a team-wide problem and everyone else shouldn’t escape blame.
But so long as this remains a constant for the Lakers, they will fail to be a real contender.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.