Austin Reaves, Lakers Furious With Refs After Game 2 Loss to Thunder

Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves lectured the officials after his team’s Game 2 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. | Via Amazon

The Lakers were furious with the officiating during their Game 2 loss to the Thunder on Thursday night, and they let them hear about it.

After L.A. lost 125-107 to fall behind 2-0 in their Western Conference semifinal series, guard Austin Reaves got in the faces of the officials and gave them a long lecture. The rest of his teammates were gathered around, and LeBron James could be seen nodding along with his teammate.

Video is below.

Reaves and the Lakers pressing the officiating crew 👀 pic.twitter.com/DpGtVgnUXE

— Shabazz 💫 (@ShowCaseShabazz) May 8, 2026

The Lakers’ problems with the officiating began early. James could be seen screaming at an official for missing an obvious foul as he made a first-quarter layup.

LeBron gets frustraded after the refs missed a clear and-1 foul on him pic.twitter.com/8aD1I40oeP

— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) May 8, 2026

In the fourth quarter, James hit a shot while getting fouled and the official waived off continuation when it looked pretty clear that the bucket should have counted. Lakers coach JJ Redick couldn’t believe it.

lebron james foul on the floor; lakers vs okc pic.twitter.com/AkQbdDKkWD

— ◇ (@F0RGIAT0) May 8, 2026

Redick got into trouble himself in the first quarter. He was given a technical foul for arguing with the refs during the following exchange:

JJ Reddick technical foul 😭 pic.twitter.com/TSk8BSg0Rt

— Shabazz 💫 (@ShowCaseShabazz) May 8, 2026

After the game, Reddick didn’t hold back on what he thought was awful officiating.

"They have a few guys that foul on every possession...there was a stretch where four straight possessions our guys got absolutely clobbered," Reddick said. "They're hard enough to play. You've gotta be able to just call it if they foul. And they do foul."

He added that the officials didn’t help James much.

“Well he gets clobbered on that one with Jaylin Williams coming over trying to block the shot when he spun baseline, that was in that stretch as well,” Redick said. “LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I’ve ever seen ... he got clobbered again tonight a bunch and that’s not a new thing. He gets fouled a lot and it doesn’t happen.”

The foul discrepancy didn’t wind up being a big difference. L.A. was called for 26 fouls, while Oklahoma City was whistled for 21. The Thunder also shot more free throws (26 to 21). Opponents and fans have complained for months that the reigning NBA champions have gotten the benefit of far too many calls. On Thursday night, the frustration boiled over for the Lakers, who now head back to Los Angeles down 2-0.

The Thunder dominated the second half of Game 2, outscoring the Lakers 68 to 49 and running away with the contest late. Chet Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 22 points each, while Ajay Mitchell added 20, and Jared McCain poured in 18 in as many minutes off the bench. As a team, Oklahoma City shot 39% from three-point range with 14 makes, and turned the Lakers over 12 times. The Thunder took over the game defensively as it wore on.

The Lakers got 31 from Reaves and 23 from James, but couldn’t keep up with Oklahoma City late. L.A.’s offense was bogged down by OKC’s excellent defense late and is clearly missing Luka Dončić, whose timeline for return is still unknown.

The two teams will meet again in Game 3 on Saturday.

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