At the 3:17 mark of the third quarter in Wednesday night’s loss to the Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves lost the ball and felt he was fouled by Jusuf Nurkic. The call was not made, and Reaves flung his arm in the direction of referee Rodney Moot, earning him a technical foul.
He immediately reacted to the technical as he was walking away, earning him an immediate second tech and an ejection from the game. The Lakers completely lost control of the game from there, as the Hornets scored 18 of the game’s next 19 points in their eventual winning effort.
Lakers star LeBron James and the entire team witnessed the moment up close, and he was very adamant about whether or not he believed Reaves deserved to be kicked out of the game.
“Obviously, it deflated us a little bit. You know, you lose a big piece like that. He had every right to argue the missed call. But what he said after that, I don’t think it warranted him being kicked out,” James said.
LeBron explained why Reaves was ejected and gave his thought on the referee’s stance.
“That he said the F-bomb too many times,” James said of what he was told was the reason for the ejection. “But he said it in the beginning and he left it alone and said ‘It’s pretty obvious.’ So I think Rodney (Mott) thought he said it again, but he didn’t say it again.”
Lakers head coach JJ Redick echoed a similar sentiment to LeBron, saying that the ref must have misheard Reaves and has his own interpretation of events.
“Didn’t get a good explanation on that one, to be honest with you,” Redick said. “We heard what he said on the second one. I don’t think any of us thought it was worthy of getting an ejection, but I’m sure they’ll give you guys a good answer.”
Miscommunications between players and referees are at the core of a high percentage of ejections. It happens often that a ref hears something in the heat of a moment that a player did not say. But there are also times where a player does not remember saying something they said in a tense moment.
Reaves’ ejection certainly affected the Lakers on Wednesday, and hopefully that will remind him to be as careful as possible in those types of moments moving forward.
Lakers’ LeBron James preaching patience with Luka Doncic
The Lakers loss surely had to do with Austin Reaves’ ejection. But it’s clear that Luka Doncic is still working through some rust and that the Lakers are still working to best incorporate him after a massive midseason identity shift.
LeBron James felt the need to preach patience with the Lakers as they work through getting Doncic fully integrated.
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