Two Lakers players get fined for criticizing the referees

Smart was seen on the television broadcast yelling at referee James Williams after the Lakers’ Game 4 loss to the Houston Rockets on Sunday at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. It appears that Kennard was also saying something in the direction of the officiating crew in the same clip.

For context, the Lakers were not pleased with the performance of the Williams-led crew during Sunday’s game. Lakers center Deandre Ayton was ejected after being given a questionable flagrant 2 foul for an elbow to Rockets counterpart Alperen Sengun in the third quarter.

Additionally, Williams went on to eject Lakers forward Adou Thiero (along with Rockets guard Aaron Holiday) for an incident during a fourth-quarter box-out. It did not appear that Theiro did much other than standing there and saying a word or two to Holiday.

The Lakers are still in total control of the first-round series as they take a 3-1 lead back into Game 5 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Calif. on Wednesday. But complaints about the officiating have been commonplace for the Lakers this season, especially for Smart who was already fined by the NBA earlier in the year for flipping off the referees during a game.