The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a disappointing loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night in what was their first game with LeBron James out of the lineup due to a groin strain. Both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves struggled mightily, combining to shoot 11-of-40 from the field and 4-for-15 from deep. The Lakers did not play well enough to win, but they may not have gotten much help from officiating either.
The Nets got 30 free throw attempts on the game compared to the Lakers 19. But more than that, it felt as though officials were missing obvious fouls against the two Lakers stars, including a blatant and intentional push of Doncic that went uncalled.
Doncic knows that he needs to do a better job of staying focused on the game when he feels the officials are missing calls, but said it was difficult for him on Monday, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Yeah, I mean at the end of the day, it was a lot. It wasn’t fair. But we just gotta play the game. I gotta keep playing the game. But it was a lot, man. Not gonna lie.”
Reaves echoed a similar sentiment, but also admitted that he and the Lakers needed to play better if they didn’t want the refs to have a say in the outcome, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I mean, it is frustrating when you think you’re getting fouled and you’re not getting to the free throw line. They got to the free throw line I think 12 more times than we did. But there’s a million different things we should’ve done better to win that game and unfortunately we didn’t do any of them. But yeah, not getting calls that you think you should get is frustrating and just not making shots is frustrating. We gotta be able to flip the page from that and lock in to something else to help the team.”
The Lakers are going to have some tough games ahead without James in the lineup, and need both Reaves and Doncic to be at their best to ensure L.A. gets wins and stays in the driver’s seat in the top half of the Western Conference standings.
Officials are going to be imperfect from game to game, so the Lakers have to focus on controlling what they can control.
JJ Redick calls Lakers loss to Nets a “low-level communication game”
Lakers head coach JJ Redick did not fault officiating or individual poor play in the team’s loss, but more that the team struggled to communicate with one another on both ends of the floor.
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