Austin Reaves found his offensive flow tonight, but he couldn’t do enough to steal Game 2 for the Lakers on the road tonight as they went to Oklahoma to face the Thunder and came away with another 18-point loss (107-125).
The 27-year-old guard ended the game leading all scorers with 31 points, six assists, and two rebounds while shooting 10-16 from the floor (62.5 FG%) and 3-6 from beyond the arc (50.0 3P%).
The Lakers cut the Thunder’s lead to five points before the defending champions went on an 8-0 run to take a 107-94 lead with a little over five minutes left in the fourth quarter.
After a timeout following a jump ball that led to a three-point shot from Cason Wallace, Austin Reaves went viral on social media as The Athletic’s Joel Lorenzi caught him yelling profanity at the official’s crew chief, John Goble. He recorded a video where Reaves can be seen aggressively yelling at Goble while his teammates pull him back.
“That’s some bulls–t for you to talk to me like that… P—y!” Reaves seemingly said.
I want to call this the game within the game, but these teams versus this crew has been explosive for the entire game. Lakers were furious about the way that jump ball was officiated. Thunder snagged it, went down the floor and got a Cason Wallace 3 and Redick timeout. pic.twitter.com/ZJaZWbkofX
— Joel Lorenzi (@JoelXLorenzi) May 8, 2026
Following the end of the game, Reaves had an extensive discussion with John Goble as his teammates also stepped on the court to address the officials for a few minutes.
Austin Reaves and the Lakers just had a meeting with the refs after the game to share their frustration with them. pic.twitter.com/exHIVkrese
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) May 8, 2026
After the game, Reaves spoke to the media and explained in detail what really transpired.
“I felt like I was respectful to all of them all night. A million times in the past, I’ve said way worse stuff. And when we were doing the whole tip ball, and they were switching spots, I wanted to get on the other side because they had a guy on the other side who was just trying to keep an advantage. And he turned around and yelled in my face.”
“I just thought it was disrespectful. The whole time that was going on over there, I don’t think he said much to them. I know Ben (Taylor) stepped in and said something.”
“But at the end of the day, we’re grown men, and I just didn’t feel like he needed to yell in my face like that. I told him that. I wasn’t disrespectful. I told him if I did that to him first, I would’ve gotten a tech. I feel like the only reason I didn’t get a tech was that he knew he was in the wrong. I just felt disrespected,” Reaves concluded.
Clearly, the officials were the key talking point from tonight’s game since even LeBron James and JJ Redick lost their cool at the officials earlier tonight. Redick even called them out after the game.
This further adds to the narrative that there should be a mechanism in the league that allows for more accountability for officials, beyond just an L2M report, that serves nothing beyond a mea culpa from officials in some cases. It will be interesting to see if the media discourse after this game can convince the league to look into this matter.
