The Los Angeles Lakers visit the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday in a series that has gone uphill for them (2-1) after losing the third game played in Minnesota (116-104) and they do so after having denounced both Luka Doncic and several teammates and even their own coach, JJ Redick, the serious interruptions suffered by his team at several key moments of that game by local fans.
Specifically, the Los Angeles fans are clamoring against the use of whistles that the fans who go to the Target Center sounded in some plays causing the Los Angeles Lakers players to be distracted, who believing that it was the referees who had whistled did not continue the play and the Wolves benefited from it.
An unsportsmanlike maneuver that is prohibited in the NBA’s official code of conduct, which explicitly bans the use of whistles on the court because of their potential to disrupt games, as happened to the Lakers in that third game. In the fourth game tonight, the referees will be very attentive and any fan who uses a whistle will be expelled from the arena.
At the beginning of the final quarter of the third game, with the Lakers trailing by four points, a crucial play occurred. Rui Hachimura lost the ball and Jaden McDaniels ran down the court to run the fast break when Luka Doncic, who could have stopped him, stood still when he heard a whistle from the stands that he thought was from the referees to stop the game.
JJ Redick, outraged and furious
Lakers coach JJ Redick was furious at this unsportsmanlike action from the crowd and called a timeout to speak to the referees. Shortly afterwards, the Target Center announcer warned the fans that anyone caught using a whistle would be immediately ejected from the arena.
This was not an isolated incident. Lakers guard Jordan Goodwin claimed to have heard a whistle at least three or four times during the second half, and even LeBron James stopped in the middle of a play because of the confusing noise. With the game on the line, every possession mattered, and any moment of doubt, especially caused by an outside factor, could have changed the course of the game, as the Lakers complained.
