Lakers' Luka Doncic, JJ Redick Call Out Refs For Non-Calls After Loss to Pistons
Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick and superstar guard Luka Dončić both expressed their belief that officiating played a role in their 128-106 home loss to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Redick suggested that the officials were lenient with regard to Detroit's defensive aggressiveness, saying, "I think there's probably a level of frustration when you're turning the ball over and you're feeling like you're getting fouled. There's frustration there, for sure. But I mean, again, I said it even here, we said it this morning: They're going to foul every possession. It's just, you got to play through it."
Dončić largely agreed with Redick's assessment, while also placing the onus on the Lakers to adjust to a physical game, saying, "We've got to definitely match their physicality. That's the whole point. We got to match how they play. You saw the refs let it go, so we should play [with] physicality, for sure."
The Pistons forced 21 turnovers and scored 30 points off of those turnovers, which proved to be one of the biggest differences in the game.
Although Dončić led all scorers with 30 points to go along with 11 assists and five rebounds, he also committed a team-high eight turnovers in the loss.
Despite the Pistons' pugnacious style, there wasn't much of a difference in the foul total Tuesday, as Detroit was called for 26 and L.A. was called for 24. The Lakers also attempted 31 free throws compared to 29 for the Pistons.
With the loss, the Lakers continued their recent slide, as they have now dropped four of their past five games, giving them a record of 20-11 on the season.
That record has them fifth in the Western Conference, just 1.5 games ahead of the seventh-place Phoenix Suns, meaning there is little buffer between the Lakers and a play-in spot currently.
Tuesday marked the second straight game and fifth time in the past seven games that the Lakers were without guard Austin Reaves, who is expected to miss at least one month of action due to a calf strain.
Reaves was playing at an All-Star level prior to the injury, averaging 26.6 points, 6.3 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game.
If the Lakers are going to turn things around and return to their winning ways while Reaves is out, they will need cleaner basketball out of Dončić and a higher level of play out of LeBron James, who scored 17 points on his 41st birthday on Tuesday.
The Lakers will play back-to-back home games against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday and Sunday with an eye toward climbing back up the Western Conference standings.
