Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick didnt mince words following his teams recent loss to the Clippers, a matchup where injuries and officiating combined to derail any chance of a comeback.
While Luka Doncics leg contusion and the absence of key rotation players certainly played a role in the 103-88 defeat, Redick shifted attention to a deeper issue: the inconsistency of the NBAs officiating and challenge system.
Overall, the consistency, its something Im gonna talk with them about tomorrow, Redick said speaking to Spectrum SportsNet. The consistency needs to be addressed. That needs to be addressed, and it will be. I think any coach, any player, what we ask for is consistency. Thats not to single any official out or any crew out, its not about that. We need to know what it is night to night. Weve had a number, and this is where I get frustrated a little bit and I keep asking the league to please reach out to me and respond to every time I do the coachs feedback thing, I dont get any response from the league, nobody ever reaches out to me.
The way we do challenges and the definitions of challenges and X, Y or Z and why you can or cant, its different with every different crew. Were supposed to have the guy at the replay center, whoever is in charge that night, were supposed to have some level of consistency. And the definitions just get changed every single night.
There was also a play where Redick tried to challenge on what looked like a proximate foul on a ball out of bounds, but was told that he could not challenge that aspect.
He wasnt thrilled about it.
Yeah. Josh (Tiven) came to me and said, I dont want you to waste your challenge, but theres a chance that its two separate plays, Redick said. Which, again, Ive seen this happen where somebodys trying to box a guy out, gets fouled, somebody goes over the back and theres a clear foul, ball gets deflected off the defensive team. Ive seen that challenged, and Ive seen that work. So its not two separate plays. The ball is part of the play, the ball got loose because of the charge, and then it was deflected. Its not two separate plays. Thats an insane definition. Insane.
