The Lakers have more to worry about than the officials.
The Los Angeles Lakers dropped Game 2 to the Oklahoma City Thunder 125-107 on Thursday night, falling into a 2-0 hole in the Western Conference Semifinals.
Officiating frustration boiled over all game long, with head coach JJ Redick picking up a technical foul and Austin Reaves marching up to the officials at halfcourt after the final buzzer.
But while the rest of the locker room was still heated, forward Rui Hachimura went a completely different direction.
Hachimura Stays Grounded
Talking to reporters after the loss, the 28-year-old forward acknowledged the ref talk without getting caught up in it.
"We can't control the referees," Hachimura said. "So we really can't do anything about it. So we just got to play through it. They're the defending champions. [The refs] give them respect. Whatever. We can't do anything about it."
He averaged 11.5 points during the regular season but has bumped that up to 15.8 through the first two rounds, largely because he has been willing to let it fly from three with Luka Doncic sidelined.
His teammates spent the postgame venting about whistles, but Hachimura just looked like a guy ready to move on and play basketball.
Why Tuning Out the Refs Matters
The officiating complaints are not going away anytime soon, especially after LeBron James somehow finished Game 2 without getting to the free throw line even once.
But if the Lakers spend their mental energy on the calls, that is energy they do not have for Game 3 at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night.
The 53-29 Lakers are already playing without their best scorer in Doncic, who went down with a left hamstring injury in early April and has no clear timetable for a return.
So everything falls on James, Reaves, and Hachimura to generate offense against a Thunder team that went 64-18 this season and still has not lost a game this postseason.
Oklahoma City keeps getting production from everyone, whether it is Chet Holmgren, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, or Jared McCain off the bench, and that depth grinds the Lakers down in the second half.
The Lakers Can Still Make This a Series
The series score looks bad, but the Lakers have had their moments.
They led at halftime in Game 2 and hung around into the third quarter before a 36-22 Thunder run blew the doors open.
Reaves bounced back with a playoff career-high 31 points after a rough eight-point Game 1 outing, the same fight this group showed when everyone counted them out in the first round against Houston.
If Hachimura's attitude spreads through the roster, the Lakers will be better off worrying about their own game instead of the officials.
The series shifts to Los Angeles for Game 3, and this team has to prove that what they did against the Rockets was not a fluke.
Nobody thought they would get here without Doncic, and now they have to show they belong on the floor with the best team in basketball.