The Pistons’ win over the Lakers last night had plenty of exciting moments and was a hard fought game to the end, but it was brought down by one thing, which was the incessant and insufferable complaining from the Lakers.
Every fan of every team thinks their team gets a bad whistle and every NBA player who has ever lived has disputed foul calls, thought they had all ball or were sure that they were hacked on their missed shot, but few of them do it after literally every play: Enter Luka Doncic.
Luka Doncic gets T’d up for a reason
I’ve been watching basketball longer than most of you reading this have been alive, and I can say with confidence that I’ve never seen a player complain to the refs as much as Luka Doncic and it’s not even close.
As Greg and George pointed out last night, the Lakers (usually Luka) complain after nearly every play to the point that it actually detracts from the game. You can see why Luka has picked up so many technicals, as it has to be exhausting refereeing one of his games.
Luka is a unique talent, and I love watching him play at times, but at others he makes the Lakers a tough watch, as the constant whining and complaining just gets old, especially when they usually get the call.
The Lakers have the biggest free-throw disparity in the league this season by far and have led the league in most seasons historically for the last 20 years, yet today we had to listen to JJ Redick say the refs cost his team the game and all of their fans crying online about how the Pistons foul too much.
Meanwhile, the Lakers shot seven more free throws than Detroit and were the beneficiary of several bad calls, including all three of the early fouls picked up by Ron Holland II.
It doesn’t matter thought because THE REFS ARE AGAINST LA! Give me a break.
The Lakers are shameless foul baiters
LeBron James had two egregious flops last night, one of which was overturned after initially being called a foul and the other was a no-call that the Lakers decided not to challenge because they would have lost.
But if you watched LeBron, you would have thought he caught a Tyson punch to the face, as his entire head and upper body went back as he flailed his arms in the air. It was pathetic.
Luka spends more time trying to draw fouls than he does shooting at times, which costs him some easy buckets that he’d probably make if he just went up strong for the shot and didn’t try to intentionally draw contact. The Lakers were fouled three times on three point attempts last night and all of them were on shots that they had no intention of making, they were just trying to draw fouls.
This is smart play and I get it. If you get a guy in the air on a pump fake, you’ve beaten him to a degree and maybe you deserve the foul shots, but some of the Lakers moves are barely even basketball plays. Are you out there to play basketball or just to draw fouls? It’s not a fun brand of hoops to watch, especially from a Pistons fans perspective, as we’ve been watching a physical team all season that doesn’t foul bait or flop much.
The Lakers are very talented and have players I like and enjoy watching, but they make it hard sometimes with the foul baiting and constant complaining to the refs.