The tension at Crypto.com Arena was not due to hosting old foes, the Boston Celtics. It was between the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA officiating. And it reached a boiling point after the 89-111 blowout loss on Sunday night. Hours after unveiling Pat Riley’s statue outside the arena, the Lakers head coach continued his confrontational legacy. But this time, JJ Redick’s tirade against officiating hits different after tonight’s display. Beyond the rant, he sarcastically offered to add a new, illegal wrinkle to the Lakers’ defensive playbook.

The loss, which saw the Lakers drop a season sweep to their historic rivals, was marred by a series of second-half frustrations overshadowing LeBron James’ 43,000 career points milestone. The home crowd could see the Lakers had lost their composure, starting in the second quarter, when the night’s tally of technical fouls began. Both teams matched with 19 fouls overall. But only LA picked up three techs.

JJ Redick feels at least one of them is invalid. He made that evident in his post-game remarks. “They missed a blatant LeBron [James] layup that was goaltended off the backboard, and [Neemias] Queta stuck his entire, I can’t jump that high, so he stuck his entire hand through the rim. I’ll get some clarification on the rule of that because honestly that’s a great way to defend floaters.”

Redick refers to a moment when Bron was going for a layup, and Neemias Queta appeared to interfere from beneath the rim.

A standard rule is that a player can’t touch the ball or the basket when the ball is at the rim. Queta didn’t get a whistle for that.

Redick obviously plans to take up the issue. But mockingly claiming to add an illegal defense of floaters to the Lakers’ repertoire is a great way to get attention.

JJ Redick’s singing the same tune

It can be ironic that Redick suggests that if “hand-through-the-rim” defense is now permitted, the Lakers might as well adopt it to stop the floaters that plagued them all night. Defense has been their most significant issue all season, but even offensive cohesion was lacking tonight.

After a tied first quarter, the Celtics upped the physicality, and the officials let the game play out. The result was the rest of the quarters getting away from the Lakers. The Lakers had no answer to Payton Pritchard’s efficiency (10-14 FG, 6-9 3PT, 4-4 FT). Aside from Luka Doncic and LeBron James, no other Lakers player had double digits. Every whistle seemed to chip away at the Lakers’ composure.

JJ Redick had a heated reaction to the third tech. He still managed not to do anything ejection-worthy and waited till the end of the game to double down on his feelings about officiating.

This isn’t the first time this season Redick has addressed the “whistle gap.” Earlier in December, Redick said he plans to speak with Byron Spruell, the NBA’s President of League Operations, regarding officiating consistency after the Lakers had three techs and a fine for Marcus Smart. “The consistency needs to be addressed… and it will be. Any coach and player, what we ask for is consistency.”

Well, the Lakers have consistently invited whistles. It’s left Redick more concerned with the team’s defensive grit than individual accolades like James’ milestone.