Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton was fined $15,000 on Wednesday for publicly criticizing the officiating following Monday’s 143-142 overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
Walton, clearly frustrated with the Lakers’ 0-3 start, opened his postgame news conference by saying several missed calls on LeBron James and his teammates were “not right.”
“Let me start here. … I wasn’t going to say anything. I was going to save my money, but I just can’t anymore,” Walton said.
“But if we are going to play a certain way, let’s not reward people for flopping 30 feet from the hole on plays that have nothing to do with that possession. They’re just flopping just to see if they get a foul call. And then not reward players that are physically going to the basket and getting hit. It’s not right.”
On Monday, LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan went to the line a combined 27 times, one more than the entire Lakers team.
It was the second straight game that the Lakers watched a pair of All-Stars go to the line more than their entire team. Saturday, in a loss to the Houston Rockets, James Harden and Chris Paul combined to go to the line 24 times.
ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this report.