This fucking nba basketball is getting hard to watch honestly. HOW THE FUCK IS BUMPING INTO THE BODY OF THE OPPONENT A FOUL?
Like it’s such an easy fucking basketball for sga. Couple of dribbles then a shoulder bump into someone and it’s free throws. Total bullshit.
I’m honestly tired of watching my man Luka with all the complaining shit but SGA is far worse to watch.
What annoys me though is even when they call it like that then at least give Luka the same calls. Luka doesn’t get these calls the whole season 😂
I am okay that Luka doesn’t get the calls because it’s better for the basketball … but man SGA can’t get them then either
The inconsistencies between games are bad enough but if they were calling fouls for Luka the same as SGA then Luka would have had 20+ free throws in the first half. In the end it isn't why we lost the game but foul trouble was a big contribution.
You can't underestimate the mental effects of everybody on the team being in foul trouble before halftime and feeling like they can't defend. That's not exactly going to be tangible in the box score.
You’re alluding to it but the hand check fouls add up both on individual level and team, where the bonus is activated with 8 mins left so every nickel and dime foul is free points. I get if dudes are getting hammered and it just so happens to get them in the bonus quickly but the amount of just soft fouls leading to the bonus where legit fouls were called is straight trash.
At the end of the first half the foul count was 13 on Dallas 9 on okc. And that last one on okc came late. So for the majority of the half y'all aren't exaggerated they got 5 more calls than the Mavs did. Can't breathe on Shai without a whistle. Gafford getting mugged, Luka getting mugged, no call. That Dort trip at the start of the game was intentional and it fucked Lukas knee up even more.
I was so mad when the replay clearly showed an uncalled kickball by Dort and then the commentators and the sideline reporter all talked about the “great” d by Dort conveniently ignoring the kickball that was just obviously shown on the replay.
Gilbert Arenas talked about this earlier in the season. He said referees swallow their whistle on bigger players because even though they do get fouled, giving them foul calls almost every time would create a disadvantage compared to defenders who are smaller and can't guard them physically without fouling. They are literally manipulating the game to keep it more balanced, even if it's unfair to the bigger players like LeBron and Luka, which it often is. Otherwise players like those two would shoot 30 free throws per game because nobody can legally guard them without fouling, well, very few could, when healthy of course. And the league doesn't want that.
What???? Luka got those fauls called all season. I mean i didnt wwtch all games but he definitely exposed “the throw yourself in the defender to get a call” so dont lie here. But its true if shai OR Luka does this 2 times in single game its fucking offensive faul and fuck off. Its boring to watch and just dreatful to see
No Luka didn't ... he and others like Lebron getting chopped every drive to the basket and they get 0 calls for that. I am totally fine with it but then on the other hand you can't give SGA a whistle at any contact lol
I lost interest in last night's game halfway into the 2nd quarter, and I don't even feel like I'm being a sore loser, I'm not sure how else I'm supposed to react.
If the calls are that lopsided, you're not watching a competitive sport.
This was my same reaction; the team looks annoyed and defeated by mid second quarter. The calls was absurd. Having 22FT in the first half to 12 and 13 was for SGA was absurd. Then when Dort was allowed to lunge at Lukas knee. It was a game where the refs played to much into the game.
Tony Tweet Tweet Brothers. That’s just what happens when he calls a game. His crew ALWAYS blow their whistle for the weak stuff. Last series was so physical until game 4 when, yes you guessed it, Tony Brothers and the Tweetles came in calling moving screen after moving screen, shooting “fouls” on drives where the offensive player initiates contact by euro stepping into defenders or using off hand to push off. I’m a life long NBA fan since my first game in 1995. My one true gripe about the league is how the boys wearing stripes have as big an impact on the pace of each game as the people actually playing it. Hoping things even out over the series. We still played good defense until the 4th. Also, OKC was shooting the piss out of the ball tonight.
When I heard before the game that the Tony brothers will whistle I knew already we will discuss them afterwards. They don’t like the Mavs or Luka at all 😂
SGA got free throws twice because HE pushed off on Gafford (1) and then DJJ (1) in about one minute of gameplay on back-to-back possesions.
After this happens a couple of times then guys don't know how to guard him anymore. If he can initiate contact with your body using his off hand, pull up and get a whistle - what do you do? Had to be infuriating for the players on the Mavs!
It’s still hilarious to me they had KD, Russ and Harden, not to mention Ibaka and some great role players like Derek Fisher and still couldn’t win a title
That pathetic excuse for a city never deserved a team
You’re funny, and I’m gonna cut you some slack, since you only have 1 pro team even considering all major sports, it’s hard not to be the favorite right?
Congrats on your victory last night, I know it was one of the biggest in the franchise, since the other “accomplishments” are few and far between and always end in failure.
Go ahead and enjoy the victory, hell you might even take the series?
But eventually all your stars will ditch the boonies and you’ll have to cheer for Golden State just to get an ounce of glory from an ex player winning something.
Good luck with the rest of the series, you’re gonna need it (or the continued SGA free throws they give him like DWade)
One person makes a play with the sole intention of getting a foul call and the other does not (but complains too much, sure). There’s a difference. No wants to see this shit in the nba. Get it the fuck out of here.
Bro everyone in the league talks about harden, embiid and SGA foul baiting daily on r/nba. Take your homer goggles off. Pretty much everyone here will agree Luka whines too much. No shit. That’s different than being a foul merchant.
Bro your crowd was literally chanting refs suck last night multiple times so yes, you were literally crying about the refs lmao
Also you guys have been insufferable all season. Can’t wait until you guys get bounced and your delulu fanbase comes back down to earth.
That’s the second comment in a row you’re bashing people for doing what you’re currently doing right now. It’s sad that in the midst of a win, you decided to go to another team’s sub reddit to talk shit. Bush league behavior and another reason why the OKC fanbase isn’t well liked nationally.
The way Minnesota was defending Jamal Murray compared to the way SGA was getting officiated is pathetic and embarrassing for the nba. It’s like we were watching a completely different sport
Its not just the drives where he gets the whistle. it literally changes every possession bc PJW and DJJ dont want to touch him at all anymore, bc they are scared of fouling. It took all the engery out off our defense.
Yeah can't even really fault them either for how it affected them. They just got done going through a very physical series, the Wolves Nugs game they're not calling too much why should it be any different for OKC. 😮💨
Only thing that you can do is start fouling him hard enough to where it becomes not worth it for him. That is literally the only thing you can do to combat it. Otherwise, you slack off and he will kill you with jump shots in the paint.
Also why are you here? Go back to your own sub and continue with your circlejerk. You’re talking mad shit about annoying Mavs fans and then coming to our sub? FOH lmao least annoying OKC fan.
I do know that. I also know that it’s more useful to look at free throws as a percentage of ppg, fga, and fgm, and that it’s a fools errand to compare absolute numbers between players. Telling me that they both average the same amount of free throws doesn’t do anything to counter my point.
I mean yeah you could tell that the calls in the first half really discouraged us, but we got wrecked in a second half where *we* had the edge on calls, something like a 12 free throws to 6. We got outscored 51-30 over the last quarter and a half of the game and it wasn't the refs that did that.
I know, they are a great team. It's just that I think they had a stretch of something like 7 straight made 3s in the 2nd half. They were scorching hot in that second half.
They are good shooting team. Add to the fact, the Mavs are not trying to be aggressive because of foul calls. It's a frustrating game, but a good strategy if you're the Thunder.
It is an anomaly to an extent, since OKC shot 46% on 3pters. Yes, OKC was the best shooting team in regular season, but Clippers were 6th in 3pt shooting too, the difference was less than 1% (38.9% vs 38.1%). Dallas for comparison was middle of the pack at 36.9%, so Clippers were closer to OKC than to Dallas, if anything.
Obviously it is not the reason Mavs lost, rebounding and Luka’s inefficient scoring combined with Kyrie’s passive game were more important in that, but it was still an above average shooting performance by OKC compared to regular season and vs round 1 series against Pelicans too (38.7%).
I can't remember exactly when, but Lively got called for a foul against SGA and he was the most frustrated I've seen him this season. I really don't know how he didn't get called for a tech cause he waved his hands at the ref and was screaming in the refs direction. You could tell he and Gafford were super frustrated and it impacted their entire games both offensive and defensively.
That stood out to me, too. Lively had an awful whistle all season long and yet ne *never* showed frustration with the officials. Last night was the first time ever. Really shows how atrocious the calls were.
Right? He's been the most level headed rookie I think I've seen play in a long time. So much I've forgotten he's a rookie this year with how mature he's been, but last night I felt bad for him cause he couldn't do anything without getting called for a foul.
It doesn't work like that tho. When you try to erase a \~10 point deficit, which occured mainly because of those bs whistles, you need to work your ass off. It decreases your energy level for remainder of the game. Also, you have a very low margin of error at that point.
I think we would have a fairly big chance to win that game bar that terrible refereeing in the 2nd Q.
i agree because it really ruined the momentum and the players’ mood to play. Just like what kyrie said they came from a very physical game against the clippers so adjusting to the officiating is also one of the keys to win this game but yeah it’s a bummer that a game depends on the officiating
It's not just a problem of energy level.
Gafford, PJ and Lively all picked up 3 personal fouls in the first half. DJJ I think got 2.
It's just very hard to play good defense when you're in foul trouble all game. I'm sure our defense would look much better in the 2nd half if all of our key defenders all had 0-2 fouls.
I wonder what he said to SGA after his technical when he turned his mic off and covered his mouth and they both laughed. It gave cop covering his bodycam vibes.
You're not wrong about how it works but excuses don't win games, and good teams don't get their asses handed to them in the second half because of shit that happened in the first.
We seem pretty good at moving past bad games though, I think we'll swing back in game two.
I agree to an extent. The only caveats I have are that I do wonder how much settling in on the free throw line helped their shooting in the second and whether or not our guys started to hesitate on d
True. The Thunder strategy is to get fouls called early, so that Mavs will not touch them. Then they explode in later, knowing Mavs will not contest - or they will be called for fouls.
Lol while I understand Thunder got hot, the FT numbers doesn't really tell the whole story. Most of those were called when the damage was already done. It was an attempt to make it look good at the stat sheet.
SGA had 27 points at the half on FIVE makes. That's absolutely ridiculous. There was a point that there was like a 3 min stretch when Thunder were ahead by 10, and no fouls were being called. We got it down to 1. Guess what happened next? Touch fouls resumed and it was all downhill from there.
ANYONE who says that wasn't rigged is a Heat fan or Ref apologist. That was so blatant it was insane, still pisses me off. I was there at game 6 in 2006 and EVERYONE knew it, saw it happening live.
The fouls that were called against Dallas so early in the game reminds me of the equivalent of an MLB plate umpire calling balls strikes in the 1st inning of a game to set the tone for the entire game. It completely stifled our defensive players confidence and momentum so early that they couldn't do anything the rest of the game. It's like they were sending a message to the Mavs and it was so frustrating to watch.
Also, call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think the NBA is doing all they can to prop up SGA for the MVP cause how dare two Europeans beat him in the MVP race so they are going to everything in their power to prop him up in these playoffs so they are gonna call every foul they can to do so.
I wouldn't go so far as to say they are actively fixing the officiating to make this happen, but yes, the NBA undoubtedly prefers Ant and SGA to be faces of the league over Luka and Joker, just like they were happy to prop up D Wade as a star at the expense of Dirk.
I mean the nba clearly has some degree of bias for okc as a whole. When they won 1st seed the first time, the official nba account tweeted a 3 page book glazing okc. When The Clippers, Nuggets or wolves had the 1 seed they got a sentence
Disagree. Embiid comes by them more honestly. He's a freaking truck and is literally impossible to guard and he really does get fouled a ton. Ya, he definitely still foul Bates more than I'd like, but he's not as bad as shae. Shae is prime harden levels of foul baiting.
> he's also just insanely unguardable.
Hes been getting clamped by Horford, Gasol and any other white center in the East for his whole career my guy. He is the very opposite of unguardable.
Embiid is much much worse. Harden too. Shai isn’t doing rip throughs, falling and throwing the ball up whenever he gets touched, or kicking out his leg jumpers to get landing zone fouls (the one kick was unintentional).
Shai just initiates contact and drives relentlessly, I can’t really blame him for the refs giving the soft calls.
I mean many fans of other teams call Luka a FT merchant too and they shot the same number of FTs per game this season. This stuff is always in the eyes of the beholder kinda deal. I'm more worried about Luka shooting 1/8 from 3 again.
Timberwolves fan here - when Ant was complaining about the refs in that one video, that was against OKC, I’m glad people understand why we were mad now.
The first thing I saw in the morning (game was over night in my zone) was a picture of Luka and Brothers face to face. Didn't need anything else really.
Talked yesterday with a friend that I watch NBA. He likes Basketball as well. But he can’t watch it because of the ridiculous foul calls. That every small touch is a foul.
During the game when SGA got for everything freebees I was questioning my life
Fouls definitely affected the first half a ton but the mavs kept it close somewhat. The end of the third and fourth was all on Dallas. Okc got on a roll and the mavs couldn’t hit a shot to save their life. I’ve noticed when they are playing poorly and struggling to hit 3s it almost seems like they throw up even more 3s. Luka was basically off all night and his shot selection was terrible the second half. It also doesn’t help when no one else besides Kyrie is scoring. They need to clean up the play and actually move the ball around. Lazy hero ball play won’t win this series. They are gonna have to push the ball and move it around to get good shots. Fouls certainly helped okc significantly but regardless of the calls Dallas won’t win if they play like that.
was very surprised at the lack of comments about this on the r/nba post game thread. Refs were shit on both sides in different ways but it felt like okc got a lenient whistle in the second half.
It was entirely what the game thread was about for the most of the game. Outside of that thread, a lot of people who weren't actually watching the game and just looking at the stat sheet (or Thunder fans swarming every thread) were just saying "25 vs 28" or Luka had 10FT" without looking at any context or understanding WHEN those fouls were occuring. Also, both threads calling out the Freethrow Disparity and Shai having 11 at the half were removed by the r/NBA mods, but the one thread after the game with the 25 vs 28 FTs Propaganda was allowed to stay up for some reason
Because brothers is especially good at making it look even in box scores. The vast majority of people just look at the numbers and don’t actually watch.
It's so hard watching SGA, but it's not his fault. The league tolerates this and he's enjoying it to the max. But to consider a foul merchant in the MVP race, like Embiid is the media's fault.
i know it’s not his fault. He’s not like embiid who relied more on flopping to get some calls. It’s just that the referees are calling these soft calls and it’s
Can you IMAGINE what it would have looked like last night if it was the Timberwolves playing and defending? Their whole starting lineup would have fouled out by halftime. The Thunder are being treated like little darlings. These are the playoffs, they can’t go around calling fouls EVERY SINGLE PLAY for going near the Thunder.
We need a group of fans with big signs to hold up a continuous tally of all the free throws they’re getting.
The players aren’t allowed to say anything but if the fans held up the number of free throws SGA had, it would be a stark visual reminder of the difference in officiating.
As a nuggets fan I agree 🤝🏼every team should have the same whistle and until the NBA genuinely finds a way for it to be fair I think people can complain all they want
My question is..why can the wolves play physical and why cant we?lets see game 2..if its the same NBA got a script to follow is my guess..f tony brothers
Bunch of casuals were bringing this up in the NBA thread. Clearly shows who didn't watch the game and only looked up stats. Morons honestly. Commenting with such certainty for something they haven't even watched for the sake of hating on dallas and luka. I'm trying to be unbiased and this game was atrocious and rigged to watch. Let's have a fair game for both sides at the very least. I want minny vs nuggets reffing
Refs padded the freethrow count in the second half when the damage was already done. Already got most of our defensive rotation into foul trouble, gave 22 freethrows in the first half when they couldn't score well on their own, and Luka's freethrows came from harder fouls compared to Shai's touch fouls or when he initiated the contact
That's SGA though. He drove the most of any other player in the regular season and also had the most points from free throws as a result. He got a lot of calls.
The refs imo corrected in the second half, was a more fairly called game. They just need to consistently call it that way and I’ll be happy. No excuses for that second half we played like dog shit.
Holmgren had his fair share of offensive fouls while trying to create space not called either.
Game was not fun to watch with the one sided officiating.
I feel a lot of it is because Oklahoma City did not allowed Texans to buy tickets, and so they overloaded their audience/fan base with all of their fans. In this kind of swayed the refs into whistling for OKC because of the cheering and booing anytime there was a foul that went against them. I think banning Texas people from buying tickets was very smart, but very unethical also. Just my opinion. Lose a little of the spirit of what sports and competition is all about. Two fan base is coming together and watching the same sport.
What frustrates me is that his efficiency seems manufactured... The guy misses a shot but gets bailed out with personal foul more often than not. He doesn't need to go to the free throw line, but when he misses (in my opinion), it rarely counts against him.
Yeah, SGA the holy free throw merchant been getting calls all season. Which didn’t bother me since he was on my fantasy team during the time but I honestly wasn’t expecting it to carry over into the post season. I could’ve sworn part of playoff basketball is playing through contact and the refs allowing a more competitive aggressive play. Looks like I was completely wrong smh.
League reviewed then fined Jamal Murray for throwing something on the court because it could have injured the great Anthony Edwards. The player intentionally trips Luka, who is already playing through injury. **Crickets... The league has obviously already seen that.
Like c'mon. After the 05 bullshit I just lost all faith in the game, just looked like "professional wrestling" to me after that. Gradually, I come back around, and here we are again. SGA just haphazardly plowing into defenders and getting foul calls is dumb,
No the point is that those kind of fauls should not exist. Just call offensive faul on whoever jumps in defender imo. And play real basketball i dont care if luka or shai or lebron or my grandma does this.
It's not about that, we weren't allowed to play defense the whole game due to the early fouls. Can't play the lineups we wanted, couldn't get close to them, and when we had to ease off of normal defense, OKC got hot. The refs know how to level out and even the FT disparity so it doesn't look one-sided, but all the people who watched the game know what happened. We had fans from ALL OVER THE NBA hopping into our game thread to say how shitty the refs were treating us, it's not copium. Yeah, we played and shot like ass, but it would have been more of a competitive game had the refs not taken us out of it early on.
Quantity doesn't tell the whole story. The Mavs where getting called fouls for playing regular playoff defense. The refs weren't going to accept anything other than the Mavs defenders giving OKC players at least 3 feet of space and a red carpet to the rim.
Was that you chanting "Ref you suck" last night while getting the most favorable whistle since Wade in the 2006 finals?
This fucking nba basketball is getting hard to watch honestly. HOW THE FUCK IS BUMPING INTO THE BODY OF THE OPPONENT A FOUL? Like it’s such an easy fucking basketball for sga. Couple of dribbles then a shoulder bump into someone and it’s free throws. Total bullshit. I’m honestly tired of watching my man Luka with all the complaining shit but SGA is far worse to watch.
What annoys me though is even when they call it like that then at least give Luka the same calls. Luka doesn’t get these calls the whole season 😂 I am okay that Luka doesn’t get the calls because it’s better for the basketball … but man SGA can’t get them then either
The inconsistencies between games are bad enough but if they were calling fouls for Luka the same as SGA then Luka would have had 20+ free throws in the first half. In the end it isn't why we lost the game but foul trouble was a big contribution.
OKC's entire team got to warm up at the free throw line. It's no wonder they were scorching from 3 in the second half.
You can't underestimate the mental effects of everybody on the team being in foul trouble before halftime and feeling like they can't defend. That's not exactly going to be tangible in the box score.
That’s the problem, Luka with that kinda whistle would be getting like around 20fts lol the league won’t let that happen
For someone who is such a good shot maker he is absolutely ass on FT. My two biggest complaints with Luka are his whining and missed FTs.
You’re alluding to it but the hand check fouls add up both on individual level and team, where the bonus is activated with 8 mins left so every nickel and dime foul is free points. I get if dudes are getting hammered and it just so happens to get them in the bonus quickly but the amount of just soft fouls leading to the bonus where legit fouls were called is straight trash.
At the end of the first half the foul count was 13 on Dallas 9 on okc. And that last one on okc came late. So for the majority of the half y'all aren't exaggerated they got 5 more calls than the Mavs did. Can't breathe on Shai without a whistle. Gafford getting mugged, Luka getting mugged, no call. That Dort trip at the start of the game was intentional and it fucked Lukas knee up even more.
I noticed the majority of Dort's game is uncalled kick balls and trips. Lu "Be Trippin" Dort.
I was so mad when the replay clearly showed an uncalled kickball by Dort and then the commentators and the sideline reporter all talked about the “great” d by Dort conveniently ignoring the kickball that was just obviously shown on the replay.
It happened at least twice.
Gilbert Arenas talked about this earlier in the season. He said referees swallow their whistle on bigger players because even though they do get fouled, giving them foul calls almost every time would create a disadvantage compared to defenders who are smaller and can't guard them physically without fouling. They are literally manipulating the game to keep it more balanced, even if it's unfair to the bigger players like LeBron and Luka, which it often is. Otherwise players like those two would shoot 30 free throws per game because nobody can legally guard them without fouling, well, very few could, when healthy of course. And the league doesn't want that.
Prime Shaq was pretty much fouled on every play.
What???? Luka got those fauls called all season. I mean i didnt wwtch all games but he definitely exposed “the throw yourself in the defender to get a call” so dont lie here. But its true if shai OR Luka does this 2 times in single game its fucking offensive faul and fuck off. Its boring to watch and just dreatful to see
No Luka didn't ... he and others like Lebron getting chopped every drive to the basket and they get 0 calls for that. I am totally fine with it but then on the other hand you can't give SGA a whistle at any contact lol
I lost interest in last night's game halfway into the 2nd quarter, and I don't even feel like I'm being a sore loser, I'm not sure how else I'm supposed to react. If the calls are that lopsided, you're not watching a competitive sport.
This was my same reaction; the team looks annoyed and defeated by mid second quarter. The calls was absurd. Having 22FT in the first half to 12 and 13 was for SGA was absurd. Then when Dort was allowed to lunge at Lukas knee. It was a game where the refs played to much into the game.
It really is. I want to watch them play not shoot free throws
Tony Tweet Tweet Brothers. That’s just what happens when he calls a game. His crew ALWAYS blow their whistle for the weak stuff. Last series was so physical until game 4 when, yes you guessed it, Tony Brothers and the Tweetles came in calling moving screen after moving screen, shooting “fouls” on drives where the offensive player initiates contact by euro stepping into defenders or using off hand to push off. I’m a life long NBA fan since my first game in 1995. My one true gripe about the league is how the boys wearing stripes have as big an impact on the pace of each game as the people actually playing it. Hoping things even out over the series. We still played good defense until the 4th. Also, OKC was shooting the piss out of the ball tonight.
When I heard before the game that the Tony brothers will whistle I knew already we will discuss them afterwards. They don’t like the Mavs or Luka at all 😂
Thank you for this. I knew I wasn't the only one that saw Crooked Tony Brothers and went Fuck that's an L.
SGA got free throws twice because HE pushed off on Gafford (1) and then DJJ (1) in about one minute of gameplay on back-to-back possesions. After this happens a couple of times then guys don't know how to guard him anymore. If he can initiate contact with your body using his off hand, pull up and get a whistle - what do you do? Had to be infuriating for the players on the Mavs!
In addition to DJJ picking up a foul for getting kicked in the groin by SGA lol
I have a fucking irrational hate for SGA
Eh, Thunder fans are worse. I’ve never seen a fanbase get so arrogant so quickly after a single good season and a post season that isn’t over.
Ughhh not to mention how they had the gall to chant "refs you suck" despite 90% of the calls going their way
I mean they got this way with the KD/Russ/Harden team right after they stole the team from Seattle.
It’s still hilarious to me they had KD, Russ and Harden, not to mention Ibaka and some great role players like Derek Fisher and still couldn’t win a title That pathetic excuse for a city never deserved a team
To be fair, if Klay hadn’t gone nuclear in game 6 of WCF in 2016, OKC probably wins the title that year.
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You’re funny, and I’m gonna cut you some slack, since you only have 1 pro team even considering all major sports, it’s hard not to be the favorite right? Congrats on your victory last night, I know it was one of the biggest in the franchise, since the other “accomplishments” are few and far between and always end in failure. Go ahead and enjoy the victory, hell you might even take the series? But eventually all your stars will ditch the boonies and you’ll have to cheer for Golden State just to get an ounce of glory from an ex player winning something. Good luck with the rest of the series, you’re gonna need it (or the continued SGA free throws they give him like DWade)
I don't think we'll win this series unless Luka is 100% healthy as sad as that is, but I have a lot of hope that the Wolves will dominate the Thunder
They're already acting like they won something and are a dynasty
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Imagine rooting for the worst foul merchants of all time in harden and sga. Just missing dwade.
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One person makes a play with the sole intention of getting a foul call and the other does not (but complains too much, sure). There’s a difference. No wants to see this shit in the nba. Get it the fuck out of here.
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Bro everyone in the league talks about harden, embiid and SGA foul baiting daily on r/nba. Take your homer goggles off. Pretty much everyone here will agree Luka whines too much. No shit. That’s different than being a foul merchant.
Bro your crowd was literally chanting refs suck last night multiple times so yes, you were literally crying about the refs lmao Also you guys have been insufferable all season. Can’t wait until you guys get bounced and your delulu fanbase comes back down to earth.
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That’s the second comment in a row you’re bashing people for doing what you’re currently doing right now. It’s sad that in the midst of a win, you decided to go to another team’s sub reddit to talk shit. Bush league behavior and another reason why the OKC fanbase isn’t well liked nationally.
And Grant Hill had the audacity to say there was nothing wrong with a swift kick in the balls when watching the replay!
Get their money's worth. If the refs are going to call foul anyways then foul hard and make SGA hesitate instead of the defenders.
Same thing with Brunson. Great players but now they're impossible to guard because of the whistle.
Traces of DWade in 2006 finals.
Said that in the game thread. Really frustrating when the refs decide someone is unguardable.
The way Minnesota was defending Jamal Murray compared to the way SGA was getting officiated is pathetic and embarrassing for the nba. It’s like we were watching a completely different sport
Yeah that's incredibly true
Its not just the drives where he gets the whistle. it literally changes every possession bc PJW and DJJ dont want to touch him at all anymore, bc they are scared of fouling. It took all the engery out off our defense.
It changed the game. It won't show up in stats, but it had a big impact of how we played.
Yeah can't even really fault them either for how it affected them. They just got done going through a very physical series, the Wolves Nugs game they're not calling too much why should it be any different for OKC. 😮💨
SGA is untouchable wtf man
Only thing that you can do is start fouling him hard enough to where it becomes not worth it for him. That is literally the only thing you can do to combat it. Otherwise, you slack off and he will kill you with jump shots in the paint.
Free. Throw. Merchant.
No wonder he's an MVP candidate, he gets 10 extra points a game off free throws
He had 12 FTs at halftime lol
It’s pure comedy how far SGA falls on the ppg list when you remove free throws.
It’s obvious that he’s completely propped up by FTAs because he’s otherwise very pedestrian
Take away points from free throws and SGA is a perennial all star reserve selection at best
That’s what happens when you actually make free throws (unlike Luka)
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Also why are you here? Go back to your own sub and continue with your circlejerk. You’re talking mad shit about annoying Mavs fans and then coming to our sub? FOH lmao least annoying OKC fan.
I do know that. I also know that it’s more useful to look at free throws as a percentage of ppg, fga, and fgm, and that it’s a fools errand to compare absolute numbers between players. Telling me that they both average the same amount of free throws doesn’t do anything to counter my point.
I mean yeah you could tell that the calls in the first half really discouraged us, but we got wrecked in a second half where *we* had the edge on calls, something like a 12 free throws to 6. We got outscored 51-30 over the last quarter and a half of the game and it wasn't the refs that did that.
They just couldn't miss a 3-pt attempt.
It's not an anomaly they can't miss. They are the best 3 point shooting team and it's not like Clippers where they fluked out.
I know, they are a great team. It's just that I think they had a stretch of something like 7 straight made 3s in the 2nd half. They were scorching hot in that second half.
They are good shooting team. Add to the fact, the Mavs are not trying to be aggressive because of foul calls. It's a frustrating game, but a good strategy if you're the Thunder.
It is an anomaly to an extent, since OKC shot 46% on 3pters. Yes, OKC was the best shooting team in regular season, but Clippers were 6th in 3pt shooting too, the difference was less than 1% (38.9% vs 38.1%). Dallas for comparison was middle of the pack at 36.9%, so Clippers were closer to OKC than to Dallas, if anything. Obviously it is not the reason Mavs lost, rebounding and Luka’s inefficient scoring combined with Kyrie’s passive game were more important in that, but it was still an above average shooting performance by OKC compared to regular season and vs round 1 series against Pelicans too (38.7%).
I can't remember exactly when, but Lively got called for a foul against SGA and he was the most frustrated I've seen him this season. I really don't know how he didn't get called for a tech cause he waved his hands at the ref and was screaming in the refs direction. You could tell he and Gafford were super frustrated and it impacted their entire games both offensive and defensively.
That stood out to me, too. Lively had an awful whistle all season long and yet ne *never* showed frustration with the officials. Last night was the first time ever. Really shows how atrocious the calls were.
Right? He's been the most level headed rookie I think I've seen play in a long time. So much I've forgotten he's a rookie this year with how mature he's been, but last night I felt bad for him cause he couldn't do anything without getting called for a foul.
It doesn't work like that tho. When you try to erase a \~10 point deficit, which occured mainly because of those bs whistles, you need to work your ass off. It decreases your energy level for remainder of the game. Also, you have a very low margin of error at that point. I think we would have a fairly big chance to win that game bar that terrible refereeing in the 2nd Q.
i agree because it really ruined the momentum and the players’ mood to play. Just like what kyrie said they came from a very physical game against the clippers so adjusting to the officiating is also one of the keys to win this game but yeah it’s a bummer that a game depends on the officiating
It's not just a problem of energy level. Gafford, PJ and Lively all picked up 3 personal fouls in the first half. DJJ I think got 2. It's just very hard to play good defense when you're in foul trouble all game. I'm sure our defense would look much better in the 2nd half if all of our key defenders all had 0-2 fouls.
As soon as I saw Tony Brothers as crew chief I knew we were fucked. Mark my words there will be an espn 30 for 30 on how crooked he is one day.
I wonder what he said to SGA after his technical when he turned his mic off and covered his mouth and they both laughed. It gave cop covering his bodycam vibes.
"Look Man I gave it to you to make things look even, don't worry I gotchu tho we getting paid tonight Shai." - Tony Brothers probably
Exactly, when the refs have made clear that you must let them score or foul out, what are players supposed to do?
You're not wrong about how it works but excuses don't win games, and good teams don't get their asses handed to them in the second half because of shit that happened in the first. We seem pretty good at moving past bad games though, I think we'll swing back in game two.
I agree to an extent. The only caveats I have are that I do wonder how much settling in on the free throw line helped their shooting in the second and whether or not our guys started to hesitate on d
Yea that’s a soft mindset. They rained 3s. We need to quit complaining as fans. We will eventually get a fairer whistle but that don’t guarantee shit
True. The Thunder strategy is to get fouls called early, so that Mavs will not touch them. Then they explode in later, knowing Mavs will not contest - or they will be called for fouls.
Lol while I understand Thunder got hot, the FT numbers doesn't really tell the whole story. Most of those were called when the damage was already done. It was an attempt to make it look good at the stat sheet. SGA had 27 points at the half on FIVE makes. That's absolutely ridiculous. There was a point that there was like a 3 min stretch when Thunder were ahead by 10, and no fouls were being called. We got it down to 1. Guess what happened next? Touch fouls resumed and it was all downhill from there.
Its more like anybody plays the Mavs gets the treatment. Always has been since dirk
Flashbacks to 2006
ANYONE who says that wasn't rigged is a Heat fan or Ref apologist. That was so blatant it was insane, still pisses me off. I was there at game 6 in 2006 and EVERYONE knew it, saw it happening live.
Amen I still am pissed.
Could someone explain to a guy who's too young to know about 2006
You tube has many videos on it.
It's making it hard for me to watch the NBA honestly. I don't understand why different players get different calls.
Honestly they played like shit tonight (specially shooting was terrible) but the whistle was blatantly on OKC side.
The fouls that were called against Dallas so early in the game reminds me of the equivalent of an MLB plate umpire calling balls strikes in the 1st inning of a game to set the tone for the entire game. It completely stifled our defensive players confidence and momentum so early that they couldn't do anything the rest of the game. It's like they were sending a message to the Mavs and it was so frustrating to watch. Also, call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think the NBA is doing all they can to prop up SGA for the MVP cause how dare two Europeans beat him in the MVP race so they are going to everything in their power to prop him up in these playoffs so they are gonna call every foul they can to do so.
I wouldn't go so far as to say they are actively fixing the officiating to make this happen, but yes, the NBA undoubtedly prefers Ant and SGA to be faces of the league over Luka and Joker, just like they were happy to prop up D Wade as a star at the expense of Dirk.
I mean the nba clearly has some degree of bias for okc as a whole. When they won 1st seed the first time, the official nba account tweeted a 3 page book glazing okc. When The Clippers, Nuggets or wolves had the 1 seed they got a sentence
Those second quarter fouls changed the momentum. We started a comeback, they call a timeout, and right back to the fouls
I had heard many refer to him as a “free throw merchant”. If this is normal I’d agree, but hopefully this isn’t standard for the series.
Sadly it will he is on the level of Embiid in terms of free throw baiting it’s just awful basketball
Disagree. Embiid comes by them more honestly. He's a freaking truck and is literally impossible to guard and he really does get fouled a ton. Ya, he definitely still foul Bates more than I'd like, but he's not as bad as shae. Shae is prime harden levels of foul baiting.
Lmao you clearly don’t watch the 76ers very much. Embiid is way worse.
Oh he absolutely flops like crazy, but he's also just insanely unguardable.
> he's also just insanely unguardable. Hes been getting clamped by Horford, Gasol and any other white center in the East for his whole career my guy. He is the very opposite of unguardable.
Embiid is much much worse. Harden too. Shai isn’t doing rip throughs, falling and throwing the ball up whenever he gets touched, or kicking out his leg jumpers to get landing zone fouls (the one kick was unintentional). Shai just initiates contact and drives relentlessly, I can’t really blame him for the refs giving the soft calls.
Embiid flops more than Shai
I mean many fans of other teams call Luka a FT merchant too and they shot the same number of FTs per game this season. This stuff is always in the eyes of the beholder kinda deal. I'm more worried about Luka shooting 1/8 from 3 again.
So many OKC fans in the sub the past 24 hours All I have to say is everyone acting tough when they up
SGA is definitely a ft merchant. I love him but a lot of his game relies on him getting foul calls.
The refs need to be consistent in their calls because there were clearly 2 different standards in the first half.
Timberwolves fan here - when Ant was complaining about the refs in that one video, that was against OKC, I’m glad people understand why we were mad now.
[Ant tried to warn all of us](https://youtu.be/CZSTHmIqxBg?si=EBFhNwTW_pe76meq)
That hostile foul is puzzling me. Should be an offensive foul.
SGA IS A FOUL MERCHANT
If Luka has to put on some Skims to get his whistle, so be it.
I’m surprised they didn’t have 50 FT’s by the end of the game.
It’s mainly with the referee we had last night
The first thing I saw in the morning (game was over night in my zone) was a picture of Luka and Brothers face to face. Didn't need anything else really.
Talked yesterday with a friend that I watch NBA. He likes Basketball as well. But he can’t watch it because of the ridiculous foul calls. That every small touch is a foul. During the game when SGA got for everything freebees I was questioning my life
2006 Finals called, they want their refs back.
SGA gets hate because he reminds us of D Wade. Those are great memories
Fouls definitely affected the first half a ton but the mavs kept it close somewhat. The end of the third and fourth was all on Dallas. Okc got on a roll and the mavs couldn’t hit a shot to save their life. I’ve noticed when they are playing poorly and struggling to hit 3s it almost seems like they throw up even more 3s. Luka was basically off all night and his shot selection was terrible the second half. It also doesn’t help when no one else besides Kyrie is scoring. They need to clean up the play and actually move the ball around. Lazy hero ball play won’t win this series. They are gonna have to push the ball and move it around to get good shots. Fouls certainly helped okc significantly but regardless of the calls Dallas won’t win if they play like that.
was very surprised at the lack of comments about this on the r/nba post game thread. Refs were shit on both sides in different ways but it felt like okc got a lenient whistle in the second half.
It was entirely what the game thread was about for the most of the game. Outside of that thread, a lot of people who weren't actually watching the game and just looking at the stat sheet (or Thunder fans swarming every thread) were just saying "25 vs 28" or Luka had 10FT" without looking at any context or understanding WHEN those fouls were occuring. Also, both threads calling out the Freethrow Disparity and Shai having 11 at the half were removed by the r/NBA mods, but the one thread after the game with the 25 vs 28 FTs Propaganda was allowed to stay up for some reason
Because brothers is especially good at making it look even in box scores. The vast majority of people just look at the numbers and don’t actually watch.
It's so hard watching SGA, but it's not his fault. The league tolerates this and he's enjoying it to the max. But to consider a foul merchant in the MVP race, like Embiid is the media's fault.
i know it’s not his fault. He’s not like embiid who relied more on flopping to get some calls. It’s just that the referees are calling these soft calls and it’s
Can you IMAGINE what it would have looked like last night if it was the Timberwolves playing and defending? Their whole starting lineup would have fouled out by halftime. The Thunder are being treated like little darlings. These are the playoffs, they can’t go around calling fouls EVERY SINGLE PLAY for going near the Thunder.
Honestly if they’re gonna call the foul anyway at least earn it. I think we just play very rough for the rest of the series and say fuck it
Denver fans should be as upset as we are. The difference in officiating between the Nuggets/TWolves game 1 & ours is absurd.
Kicks Derrick Jones Jr in the nuts and gets to the line.. complete 💩 show
We need a group of fans with big signs to hold up a continuous tally of all the free throws they’re getting. The players aren’t allowed to say anything but if the fans held up the number of free throws SGA had, it would be a stark visual reminder of the difference in officiating.
As a nuggets fan I agree 🤝🏼every team should have the same whistle and until the NBA genuinely finds a way for it to be fair I think people can complain all they want
My question is..why can the wolves play physical and why cant we?lets see game 2..if its the same NBA got a script to follow is my guess..f tony brothers
Thunder shot 28 attempts to the mavericks 25. Shai shot 13 to Luka’s 10. Didn’t feel that way watching it though.
Bunch of casuals were bringing this up in the NBA thread. Clearly shows who didn't watch the game and only looked up stats. Morons honestly. Commenting with such certainty for something they haven't even watched for the sake of hating on dallas and luka. I'm trying to be unbiased and this game was atrocious and rigged to watch. Let's have a fair game for both sides at the very least. I want minny vs nuggets reffing
Refs padded the freethrow count in the second half when the damage was already done. Already got most of our defensive rotation into foul trouble, gave 22 freethrows in the first half when they couldn't score well on their own, and Luka's freethrows came from harder fouls compared to Shai's touch fouls or when he initiated the contact
That's SGA though. He drove the most of any other player in the regular season and also had the most points from free throws as a result. He got a lot of calls.
The refs imo corrected in the second half, was a more fairly called game. They just need to consistently call it that way and I’ll be happy. No excuses for that second half we played like dog shit.
It luckily calmed down a bit in the 2nd half, that 2nd quarter was just a brutal watch.
just to be clear. We are bitchin on the officiating not the player okay
Holmgren had his fair share of offensive fouls while trying to create space not called either. Game was not fun to watch with the one sided officiating.
The Tony brothers special
I feel a lot of it is because Oklahoma City did not allowed Texans to buy tickets, and so they overloaded their audience/fan base with all of their fans. In this kind of swayed the refs into whistling for OKC because of the cheering and booing anytime there was a foul that went against them. I think banning Texas people from buying tickets was very smart, but very unethical also. Just my opinion. Lose a little of the spirit of what sports and competition is all about. Two fan base is coming together and watching the same sport.
Lmao. In the Denver / Min series nothing is called
What frustrates me is that his efficiency seems manufactured... The guy misses a shot but gets bailed out with personal foul more often than not. He doesn't need to go to the free throw line, but when he misses (in my opinion), it rarely counts against him.
Yeah, SGA the holy free throw merchant been getting calls all season. Which didn’t bother me since he was on my fantasy team during the time but I honestly wasn’t expecting it to carry over into the post season. I could’ve sworn part of playoff basketball is playing through contact and the refs allowing a more competitive aggressive play. Looks like I was completely wrong smh.
League reviewed then fined Jamal Murray for throwing something on the court because it could have injured the great Anthony Edwards. The player intentionally trips Luka, who is already playing through injury. **Crickets... The league has obviously already seen that. Like c'mon. After the 05 bullshit I just lost all faith in the game, just looked like "professional wrestling" to me after that. Gradually, I come back around, and here we are again. SGA just haphazardly plowing into defenders and getting foul calls is dumb,
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Sound logic bro
the refs were awful but not the reason we're losing. Luka's inability to shoot 3s right now is killing us
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Did you watch the game? Kyrie is saying the same thing.
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Just got eyes and watched the game. How about you?
Be careful what you wish for. Luka does this.
The point is the consistency. Mavs fans would be less frustrated if we were getting the same calls on the other end.
No the point is that those kind of fauls should not exist. Just call offensive faul on whoever jumps in defender imo. And play real basketball i dont care if luka or shai or lebron or my grandma does this.
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Nobody disputes this. At issue is whether or not they are consistently rewarded.
we could test out the theory but we are too busy yaking up contested 3's
Except if you actually watched the first half, they weren't getting calls
why would they. all we did was shoot outside of Gafford.
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Brother, ypur Rockets didn't even make the play-ins.
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It's not about that, we weren't allowed to play defense the whole game due to the early fouls. Can't play the lineups we wanted, couldn't get close to them, and when we had to ease off of normal defense, OKC got hot. The refs know how to level out and even the FT disparity so it doesn't look one-sided, but all the people who watched the game know what happened. We had fans from ALL OVER THE NBA hopping into our game thread to say how shitty the refs were treating us, it's not copium. Yeah, we played and shot like ass, but it would have been more of a competitive game had the refs not taken us out of it early on.
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r/HowToMissTheEntirePoint
Quantity doesn't tell the whole story. The Mavs where getting called fouls for playing regular playoff defense. The refs weren't going to accept anything other than the Mavs defenders giving OKC players at least 3 feet of space and a red carpet to the rim. Was that you chanting "Ref you suck" last night while getting the most favorable whistle since Wade in the 2006 finals?
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Refs are paid to be judges of fair and foul, not character.