{"id":178737,"date":"2026-02-23T18:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=178737"},"modified":"2026-02-23T18:10:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:10:34","slug":"lakers-receive-explanation-on-puzzling-no-call-vs-celtics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/02\/23\/lakers-receive-explanation-on-puzzling-no-call-vs-celtics\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Receive Explanation on Puzzling No-Call vs. Celtics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday\u2019s <\/span>Lakers-Celtics showdown<\/span><\/a> had yet another viral missed call, <\/span>once again captured on camera<\/span><\/a> for the NBA world to see.<\/span><\/p>\n

With roughly 7:30 left in the third quarter and having just blocked <\/span>LeBron James<\/span><\/a>, Celtics center <\/span>Neemias Queta<\/span><\/a> went up against <\/span>Deandre Ayton<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>his right hand going through the basket<\/span><\/a> while attempting to contest the shot. Moments after, an irate JJ Redick demanded an explanation from the officials, <\/span>jumping up to fix the net<\/span><\/a> while pleading his case\u2014and receiving a technical foul as a result, only adding to the <\/span>officiating woes<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lakers Receive Explanation on Puzzling No-Call vs. Celtics<\/b><\/h2>\n

Redick\u2019s Comments<\/b><\/h3>\n
\"Feb
Feb 22, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick watches game action against the Boston Celtics during the first half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Redick finally received that explanation during a Monday morning call with Monty McCutchen, the NBA\u2019s Senior Vice President of Referee Training and Development. Relaying McCutchen\u2019s explanation post-practice, <\/span>Redick told reporters<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I talked with Monty this morning. Got some great explanations on stuff that I had questions on, and truthfully, he said it wasn\u2019t a goaltend. You know, I don\u2019t know if we want to endanger our guys\u2019 fingers, but if I was <\/span>Luke Kornet<\/span><\/a> or Wemby [<\/span>Victor Wembanyama<\/span><\/a>], \u2026 every time somebody took a shot, I\u2019d stick my hand up in the rim and just not jostle, it, because I think it\u2019s an incredible deterrent. \u2026 It\u2019s a new thing for me to learn. That\u2019s the beauty of this job, you learn something new every day.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re allowed to stick your hand up into the rim on a shot \u2026 as long as the rim\u2019s not pulled down, I guess,\u201d he continued. \u201cYou can jostle the rim. That\u2019s the explanation I got.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What the Rule Book Says About Goaltending<\/b><\/h3>\n

Among the NBA\u2019s rules on basket interference, <\/span>a player shall not<\/span><\/a>, \u201cTouch the ball at any time with a hand which is through the basket ring\u201d or \u201cTouch the rim, net or ball while the ball is in the net, preventing it from clearing the basket.\u201d The aforementioned footage clearly shows Queta\u2019s hand going through the rim, but not altering the trajectory of the ball as Ayton\u2019s jump hook misses off the right side.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Redick is right to hold officials accountable and question the no-call\u2014which has drawn just as much <\/span>confusion<\/span><\/a> among NBA fans\u2014it\u2019s also clear that two points does not erase the 22-point drubbing Boston handed LA. Nearly 24 hours after a rivalry loss, there’s simply no crying over spilled milk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Onto the Next<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Lakers (34-22, 5th in West) will look to get back on track tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. PT, facing the 30-26 Orlando Magic, who are jostling for a guaranteed playoff spot while sitting in play-in territory. As of now, center <\/span>Jaxson Hayes<\/span><\/a> is <\/span>day-to-day with a minor bruise<\/span><\/a> in his right ankle that he sustained during Sunday\u2019s loss.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday\u2019s Lakers-Celtics showdown had yet another viral missed call, once again captured on camera for the NBA world to see. With roughly 7:30 left in the third quarter and having just blocked LeBron James, Celtics center Neemias Queta went up against Deandre Ayton, his right hand going through the basket while attempting to contest the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":178742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,5,26,62,3],"tags":[1419,2279,38,4108],"class_list":["post-178737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-lakers","category-nba","category-news","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-jj-redick","tag-lebron-james","tag-neemias-queta"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178737"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178746,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178737\/revisions\/178746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}