Ziaire Williams does not stutter over NBA flopping crackdown

LOS ANGELES – New Los Angeles Lakers forward Ziaire Williams missed his first game of the season during the team’s 103-87 win against the LA Clippers on Wednesday due to a left foot injury. Ahead of the game, Lakers head coach JJ Redick acknowledged that the injury wasn’t expected to be anything serious and that it was more precautionary amid the rigid schedule.

But in the two games the Lakers played prior to him being sidelined, Ziaire Williams had come under scrutiny by the NBA for perceived flopping. Williams was retroactively fined after the Lakers defeated the Utah Jazz last Sunday due to flopping. And then in the loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday, he was hit with a technical foul by the officials for what they deemed flopping as well.

Speaking to reporters after the loss to the Blazers, Williams was in disbelief over a lack of communication as to what the referees were considering flopping.

“If a dude is pushing off me, my body is naturally gonna waiver back. I don’t know. I don’t think I flopped but I don’t know. I don’t know. I really can’t answer that,” Williams had said during his postgame press conference. “They’ve just been calling it. I haven’t heard anything from anyone. Like I said, I don’t think I’m flopping. If I was flopping, I’d be on the floor. It is what it is, there’s nothing I can do about it now.”

While Williams has been the one Lakers player singled out in that regard as of late, during the Blazers game, Ja Morant was also hit with a technical foul for perceived flopping. Following the game, he too was not given an explanation by the officials as to why he was called for a flopping technical, as per Law Murray of The Athletic.

For Lakers head coach JJ Redick, he expressed the same sentiment as Williams in that sometimes players’ bodies make a natural motion when getting hit, and that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re trying to embellish anything. He also defended his player from the previous game against the Jazz after the fine.

“They’re looking for theatrical things,” Redick said during his postgame press conference after the loss to the Blazers. “I also think Ziaire, his body naturally moves a certain way. I’ll have to rewatch, but I didn’t think the one the other night was a flop. That’s just the way his body naturally moves.”

With that aside, Williams has made a strong impact in his first season with the Lakers. He’s been a starter in all four games he played in, averaging a career-best 11.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 steals with splits of 57.1 percent shooting from the field, 46.7 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 85.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line.

Getting him back in the lineup is a needed boost for the Lakers, but as of publication, he was questionable coming into the team’s game against the Golden State Warriors on Friday.