Quote:
Originally Posted by Scottish Punk
Agreed. People complaining that the refs cost Indy the game need to stop crying. Indy didn't make shots down the stretch. Just like OKC didn't make them in game one. I saw one maybe two borderline calls for SGA. Even, then replay shows that there was a foul. It is the finals, a team can't be so fragile that you can't overcome a couple of close calls.
This feels like it is going seven. Talk of Indy blowing their chances and they are done is silly. Indy has all the chance in the world to win this. These playoffs has shown that. I haven't seen a lot of arms up complaining by these teams, so that is a big refreshing at least. Always will be some, but players are moving on quickly.
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Rewatched the game and I agree with this somewhat. Scott Foster did kind of Rian Johnson this series (Star wars ep. 8 reference). Through 3 games it had been officiated a certain way, and he threw that out the window. Indisputable that he disrupted the flow of the game with more whistles (for contact that wasn’t called in games 1-3), random extended stoppages, changed criteria for flagrant 1 etc. Until the 4th quarter, I also think he allowed OKC’s defense to play with a greater physicality than Indiana. Caruso and Dort were getting away with the same level of contact on and off ball being whistled on Indiana. But I think the bigger thing was that the lower threshold for whistles really slowed down the pace of the game and disrupted rhythm which was more advantageous to OKC. Maybe not intentional, but an unintended consequence of how this game was called. Games 1-3 were all around 2:30 duration…G4 was 2:49, almost 20 minutes longer (12.5% longer).
Ultimately I agree Indiana just missed shots late, some of which were open. I disagree this series isn’t over, as much as I’d like Indiana to win. OKC at home is just massively different from OKC on the road—all the advanced metrics support this. Still going to watch of course.
06-14-2025, 10:09 AM
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