Lakers coach slams officiating of LeBron James: 'Worst whistle of any star player'

JJ Redick is fed up with how referees are handling LeBron James. The Los Angeles Lakers coach made that abundantly clear after his team fell down 2-0 in its second-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

James averaged 5.3 free throw attempts during the regular season and has gotten a mere five combined heading into Game 3. Redick credits the lack of calls to James' size.

"LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I've ever seen," Redick said postgame, per ESPN. "I mean, I've been with him two years now. The smaller guys, because they can be theatric, they typically draw more fouls, and the bigger players that are built like LeBron, it's hard for them. He gets clobbered. He got clobbered again tonight a bunch."

Despite the infrequent trips to the free throw line, James has had a productive start to the series. James drained 12 of his 17 shots for a team-high 27 points in Game 1, then in Game 2 he scored 23 points on 50% shooting to go along with six assists and three steals.

James was far less vocal than his coach when asked about the referees postgame, saying, "We're down 2-0," in response to a question about how the game was called.

Austin Reaves was the most animated of them all. The guard ripped into refs right after the final buzzer sounded, requiring his teammates to hold him back. Reaves was upset about crew chief John Goble addressed him earlier in the game.

"At the end of the day, we're grown men," Reaves said. "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 have got a tech. I feel like the only reason I didn't get a tech is because he knew he was in the wrong. So, yeah, I just felt disrespected."

The series shifts back to Los Angeles for Game 3, and the margin for error for the Lakers is slim to none.