When it came to officiating the Raptors’ aggressive perimeter defense, Sunday night went exactly as JJ Redick described it would.
Before his team’s victory over the Raptors at Crypto.com Arena, the Lakers coach was asked whether there’s anything the Raptors do tactically to be as proficient with forcing turnovers as they are.
The Raptors entered Sunday ranked No. 1 in turnovers forced and defensive turnover percentage, but also committed the most personal fouls per game.
“If you look at the team – and this is not like a shot, this is just reality – a lot of the teams that force turnovers, they foul a lot,” Redick said. “And so by fouling on every possession, the refs are just naturally gonna allow you leeway.
“Oklahoma City does that. Detroit, watching this team, this version of this Raptors team on film, they remind me a lot of like last year’s Detroit team where they’re just going to foul you on every possession. And obviously they’ve also been called for the most fouls, and they’ve given up the most free throws, so that’s part of it.”
The game played as Redick said it would.
The Lakers finished with 24 turnovers that directly resulted in 30 points for the Raptors, who also committed 26 personal fouls.
While taking care of the ball has been a struggle for the Lakers, Redick saw what happened Sunday as a reflection of how NBA officials referee games in the modern era.
“I mean you guys can see it – some of those turnovers are because we’re legitimately getting fouled,” Redick said. “I told one of the referees this ‘cause all these guys do it, all the on ball defenders [do it] now. What they do is they pick you up and then they grab the arm you’re not dribbling with and then they try to steal the ball from you.
“Famously Cason Wallace did it with TJ McConnell [in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA finals]. And that’s just the NBA right now.
“It’s really hard when you play teams like this that are just fouling every possession. We did enough to play through it. But a lot of those turnovers are just that and then you can point to some decision making [with] some passes, all that stuff. Those naturally happen within the flow of the game.”
Lakers superstar Luka Dončić, who’s often being guarded by the team’s best defenders, has noticed the shift in how perimeter defenders are officiated over the last couple of years.
“In the last two years, the game has become way more physical,” Dončić said.
“They allow way more contact. But obviously like you said, the refs can’t call everything. We just need to learn from them. We need to do the same things. Use that on the defensive end. You got to use aggression towards them. We just got to learn from that and we should do all the same on defense.”
