Ziaire Williams’ brief run with the Lakers has already included a couple of bruising calls from the NBA, but neither he nor JJ Redick sound interested in backing down from the league’s flopping crackdown.
Williams was unavailable Wednesday night for Los Angeles’ 103-87 win over the LA Clippers because of a left foot injury. Redick said before the game that the issue did not appear serious and was being treated cautiously because of the team’s tight schedule.
The injury kept Williams out after a stretch in which the league had already put him under the microscope. He was retroactively fined after the Lakers’ win over the Utah Jazz last Sunday for flopping, then received a technical foul in Monday’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers for what officials judged to be the same offense.
After that Blazers game, Williams said he had no real clarity on what the officials wanted from him.
“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.”
The same game also brought a flopping technical for Ja Morant, and he also said afterward that officials did not explain the call, according to Law Murray of The Athletic.
Redick backed his forward, echoing the idea that some reactions are simply part of contact basketball and not theatrical acting. He also stood by Williams after the fine against Utah.
“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.”
On the floor, Williams has given the Lakers plenty to like in his first season with the team. He started all four games he played and posted a career-high 11.3 points along with 3.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game. His shooting numbers have been just as strong: 57.1 percent from the field, 46.7 percent from 3-point range and 85.7 percent at the line.
Los Angeles could use that kind of production back in the rotation, and Williams was listed as questionable Friday against the Golden State Warriors.
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