[Highlight] Ausar Thompson gets called for his fifth foul assaulting Evan Mobley. Avoids a second flagrant.
Good call, you can’t just be existing in space and time like that
He did a lot more than that. He breathed.
Idk if you can tell from this angel but his eyes were open and everything
Did he laugh?
Basketball is not a quantum sport.
The last 2 fouls on Ausar were crazy lmao. Coming from a Cleveland fan
Refs have been terrible in almost every series this playoffs. Everyone has the right to complain. Except OKC.
The Cavs are +45 in FT against the Pistons through six games.
While shooting 45.3% of their field goal attempts from three, compared to 33.2% for the Pistons.
The refs’ bias for the Cavs is real.
Harden deserves an Oscar.
Give Strus one for best supporting actor. He’s either has horrible balance or we have the strongest players in the league because I swear he falls down every time we screen him.
I love how the reaction to these kinds of comments in this sub is entirely dependent on the most recent winner lmao
If you said this 24 hours ago the subreddit would have a field day with you. But Detroit won last night, so now it’s acceptable. Lol, Reddit.
Haha I just said the same thing. We lose and it’s “haha losers refs didn’t make you blow a 9 point lead”. We win and it’s “haha Cavs can’t win even with the refs on their side! Harden is such a flopper! +45 FT differential! I can’t believe they called those fouls on Ausar!”
I wish this play occurred in the last two minutes so we could see the word salad the NBA would cook up to explain why they never actually get a call wrong
Also the Pistons foul more than any team in the league.
There’s gonna be some variance.
have you seen how Dean Wade guards people? and Tyson? Not to mention what James Harden does.
Hate to say it, but that 9 point comeback from Cleveland had a lot of Zebra help.
Detroit is going to have to win game 7 in double digits if they stand a chance.
Doesn’t matter when 1 bucket in 2.5 minutes wins it. Detroit blew that game
Oh we definitely blew it, but Cade and Caris both got fouled on shot attempts in the paint and they gave Mobley 2 FT’s to tie the game for the smallest little bump. 6 pts right there.
It can be both.
Right. As frustrating as that was, you can’t just stop playing and go on to win. Similar to the start of the 2nd half in Game 4.
Thats how it is and they know that! Check out this interview from Jenkins after the game
they know what it is
Tbf OKC hasn’t needed the refs help yet
Which is why its so much worse
And yet, they still have gotten it
The Thunder were -14 FT against the Lakers.
Total FTs aren’t the only thing that matters. It’s the nature of calls and inconsistency.
We saw so many blatant examples of terrible officiating benefiting them, let’s not try and gaslight.
First of all, stating a true fact that the Lakers had a 14 ft advantage over a 4 game series with an average margin of victory of 16 is not gaslighting. Gaslighting is convincing someone of something untrue by forcing them to second guess themself.
Second of all, this is an example of OKC haters moving the goal posts. When that graphic showing SGA has the most ft’s shot over the last 2 seasons + playoffs was posted, every hater came out of the wood work to claim how that proves he’s a grifter. Now, in a series where OKC didn’t shoot more total ft’s all of a sudden it doesn’t matter, and it is the quality of calls that is the issue. As if you couldn’t also find so many blatant examples of the Lakers benefiting from bad calls either.
The reality is that you are biased, and are only going to notice the calls that benefit OKC regardless of what happens, because you are actively looking for them. When SGA doesn’t get a call, you don’t see that as the refs making a mistake(there were plenty of calls that Reeves got on one end that SGA didn’t get on the other), you see it as him trying to grift and flop, and the refs not rewarding it. And as long as you have that mindset, there is nothing that can be said or done to make you see it any other way.
inferiority complex haters aren’t gonna like this one
That was kind of /u/Clemsontigger16 to prove your point within an hour of posting
”(there were plenty of calls that Reeves got on one end that SGA didn’t get on the other).”
Reality disagrees. FTAs in the series: Shai 34, Reaves 27
This is what I mean by moving the goal posts. You are now making the exact opposite argument, as to what the original guy(who blocked me so I can’t even see his original comment or replies) was. Yes, 34>27, congrats at doing elementary level math, but there is nuance to those numbers that isn’t shown. That doesn’t prove anything other than that SGA shot more ft’s than Reaves.
When the Lakers shooting 14 more ft’s as a team, it’s the missed calls against OKC, and soft calls for SGA that the Lakers aren’t getting that is the problem. But when SGA shoots more ft’s than Reaves individually, all of a sudden those missed calls can’t possibly have happened, otherwise SGA wouldn’t have been able to shoot more ft’s.
So what is it?
Weird.
Shai shooting more ftas than Reaves certainly doesn’t support your statement that “”(there were plenty of calls that Reeves got on one end that SGA didn’t get on the other).”
dude’s drunk on some “exception proves the rule” shit
As usual, no one shot more ftas in the series than SGA.
I’ve never said that okc gets the most foul calls. I’ve consistently said that they’re reffed differently from all other teams and allowed to play oppressive physical defense and opposing defenders are forced to back off or else okc will almost always get the call.
Exactly that’s the argument hence why I said it’s not just about total FTs, but then this dude who a novel in response that I’m big going to read.
You know you’re wrong you’re being a fucking weirdo about it
Of course you won’t read it, that’d backfire against your self inflicted narrative. What a cop out.
Hope it made you feel better to write all that out, but not reading your novel. It’s never been about total fouls, rather the difference between how they are officiated on defense and the whistle SGA specifically gets on offense.
Hope that helps, have a good one
It’s three paragraphs. It takes less than a minute to read.
The state of online discourse is fucking woeful.
And then the dude blocked me so I can’t even see what he was trying to say…
You’re a sensitive lil guy aren’t you?
Yall always do this bullshit but choose to ignore when the other team benefits from bad officiating. Two sweeps in a row and you want to say it’s because of the refs yeah okay.
Literally no one said of suggested the Thunder’s success or sweeps have been because of the refs?…
You’re over here getting upset because you’re own reading comprehension sucks lol
Nobody brings up how they’re called when the refs give us 4 fouls in less then a minute in 3rd when they clearly want to extend the game and prevent a blowout
Weird how apparently we’re the only team in nba history to have refs make bullshit calls in our favor
Such a silly strawman argument…no one says the Thunder have never once had a stretch or a game of unfavorable officiating, obviously people are talking in the aggregate.
“But this one time, in small stretch in one game, the refs were bad, so therefore it’s all the same”
Why everybody use FTs? The proper stat is fouls, not FTAs. FTAs depend on the type of foul (floor/2pt/3pt/and1/offensive).
Yall are such crybabies holy shit
God forbid we talk about the realities of your team.
You’re the only one being a cry baby here, everyone else is very calm.
Have you seen your guys play? They cry on every drive and the refs wipe up their tears.
Ive seen players on every team complain to refs. But you losers cry online like fucking toddlers
Last in ft this post season btw but sure go on
I love the snark, but this is so unclear. What is the specific stat you’re referring to? The Thunder’s FTAs? FTMs? Their opponents FTAs? FTMs? Are you talking about per game numbers? Are you talking totals? Are you talking differential?
Regardless, a single statistic never tells the whole story.
Tbf to OKC, they objectively have been middle of the road on most fouls metrics. On per game metrics in the playoffs for teams still alive:
- they’re the last spot in FTA (Cleveland is top, Knicks are 2nd, SAS 3rd, and Pistons 4th).
- they have the 3rd worst foul favorability (a metric I may have made up, but basically it’s PFD-PF, or how many more fouls your opponent is called for than you are). In the playoffs so far, OKC has been called for 0.8 fewer fouls than their opponent. Cavs are first at 3.4 fewer fouls than their opponent, followed by Knicks at 1.0, then OKC, then SAS 0.2 fewer. Detroit has the least favorable whistle at -1.7, meaning they get called for 1.7 more fouls than their opponents (note that Detroit has a favorable whistle in the first round)
I haven’t watched the OKC games, so I can’t speak to the nature of the fouls. But going by the numbers alone, OKC appears to be getting a bad rap. Though, that could be a result of fewer games as later in the series things get more chippy
Edit: fixed rankings in first bullet point. I’d originally listed their absolute rankings, but changed everything else to ranking teams left
The Thunder have only played 8 games and most of them have been blow outs so I don’t necessarily think any of these numbers would be telling either way.
I’ve watched the games. Nothing really stood out imo. I think they’re just getting a bad rap because people hate them. OKC beat 2 much lesser teams. I don’t know why people have to always complain about the refs.
I don’t like OKC but it’s just so exhausting having people cry about refs every day.
idk about the blow out theory either, though. At such a small sample size, net rating would be a decent metric to look at as a correlation for blow outs. Knicks are top at an absurd +20 net rating compared to OKCs +17. Yet the Knicks are #2 in both FTA and foul favorability amongst teams still alive.
I hate OKC as much as the next guy, but they definitely catch a lot of flack that they don’t fully deserve
Sorry. I’m not saying that they have lower or higher FTs because of the blowouts. I’m bringing up the blowouts because I think it makes the stats even more noisy along with the smaller sample size.
Yeah, I’d love if the Spurs beat them. I’m just tired of hearing about OKC and the refs every day. They beat the Suns and Luka-less Lakers… What are we talking about here haha
Ah, yeah, the noise is probably a good callout. I’d need a second cup of coffee today to think that through lol
Wrong, the Hawks and Celtics shot fewer ftas.
True, but we all saw those SGA and Chet flops.
Yep they don’t need it…. but when they do, expect a lot more bitching and flopping.
I despise the Lakers as a team, but they did get hosed in the first two games. They played on their heels the rest of the series.
OKC / SA will be fascinating - which immovable, unwhistle-able staff will finally get hosed? SGA or Wemby?
I’m voting SGA gets whistled. The NBA wants Wemby in the Finals.
Genuinely some real idiots on here
Lol, they “lost the fta battle” by 3.5/gm, while playing their standard “they won’t call them all” defense.
can we discuss the evidence shown by the turnover margin being (a much bigger) 5.75/gm in OKC’s favor?
Do you actually think a +6 turnover rate in this series indicates unfair officiating?
This Lakers team had a ton of turnovers against the rockets also, they had 1.5 players who could initiate offense. One of which was 41.
Yes. No calls on OKC hacks become steals and possession changes from flops become turnovers.
the cavs definitely don’t either lol
What he say fuck me for
Because fuck you….😁
We cant complain because we haven’t had a loss to blame on the refs yet
Ironic
Makes more sense if you assume that the refs are involved in gambling. There’s a zero percent chance that millionaire players are involved in gambling, but somehow not a single ref is involved.
lol, the refs did everything they could to give a game to the Lakers. It just didn’t matter.
People will literally watch a far more egregious series then any of ours and still say we’re worse 😭 you people are crazy lol
Yeah, hoe the hell are they going to call thst 6th foul. Like aure its probably technically a foul, but this is the playoffs and both sides do that kind of stuff all game.
The refs even said to him something like “you knew you had 5 fouls and did it amyways”.
Sure he grabbed his arm or whatever? But watch the games. Both these teams are hold players every single screen they come off of.
There were some incredibly weak calls.against the pistons last night. Meanwhile cade has a whistle about as good as Steph’s.
The last one was fine. This one was like…what…?
Clearly the NBA will look into suspending him for G7 for this disgusting act of violence
Beef Stew’s influence on Ausar was on full display that play. Suspend him for the remainder of the playoffs.
The inconsistency is the most frustrating part. Players don’t know how physical they can be. This Wolves vs Spurs series was pretty physical and then you see something like this it’s like wtf. I see why the players are frustrated
Exactly, people keep bringing up how the Pistons play physical and led the league in fouls during the regular season and should expect to concede a lot of FTs. No one will dispute that. The problem is they also play physical on offense and rely on getting into the paint and were 3rd in FTAs during the regular season and now have dropped off a cliff in FTAs despite not changing their play style. It’s not really being called both ways.
And I’m guessing it will be Foster and/or Brothers for game 7.
Ugh
Hey, those are higly respected Tier 1 and 2 refs. Find a new slant. /s
100%. I just hope our series is reffed consistently. Either let us both be physical or don’t.
Comment on repeat for 50 years
good for the thunder their 2nd round ended quickly. seeing how their games were officiated, then the spurs and minni when they were playing prison ball. buncha dudes driving and falling both from lakers and thunders side.
This call is fucking terrible because you can see the ref fully watch the first shove by mobley with no call. It would be one thing if he didnt see the first action then saw the retaliation. But this bitch ass ref saw everything..
I swear Mobley is getting some good ass whistle. Dude sets some illegal screens that aren’t called. See him tip toeing and leaning forward or stick out his right hip and knees. And you can’t touch him here
Every big in the NBA sets approximately 2 illegal screens per possession.
illegal screens are one of those things that the league can use to influence a game.
No one knows why theyre not called when they should be. No one know why they are called when they are. No one knows when theyre supposed to be called because they’re so inconsistent and the action that causes the few calls happen constantly. End result is they just pick and choose when to call it, and no one can call it a rigged call because you can’t accuse someone of being unfair if its fundamentally inconsistent and unclear to begin with.
Correct. I swear this is KG’s fault for going to Boston.
His skinny ass was widening his entire body and pushing off to set screens and the league copied that shit.
Mobley is a smart player and has been watching Harden.
Ref #16 legit put his hand up but then just didnt call it with the first mobley shove
spot fixing
The first shove was mutual.
The second was a slight cheapshot.
I wouldn’t have called any of it a foul, but you’re wrong about the first shove. Mobley was reacting.
This is like call the FBI level stuff. One bad call is one bad call but he was off the charts in the second half. He called both of the crazy 5th and 6th fouls on Ausar and also the phantom double dribble on Cade.
And people are saying that complaining about how the refs have called this series is unjustified because “the Pistons led the league in pfs this season”.
If I was in charge of the refs, Buchert would have called his last playoff game based on that call alone.
I mean both can be true… the pistons hack and foul a ton, and this call was a joke lol (and far from the only bad call)
When you have a generational foul baiter in harden and a team (other than OKC) that hacks a ton, lots of fouls will get called
You know the Pistons were also one of the best teams at drawing fouls.
Hence the frustration.
The trip at the end of game 5 was more egregious than this and the Cade foul on Harden. It’s ridiculous
Im dont think the refs have been as bad as most pistons fans think - on paper, sure. Eye test, calls havent been that bad other than fucking Harden.
These Ausar fouls, though, were not a coincidence. This was to get cleveland back in the game.
Ausar has the absolute worst defensive whistle of any defensive specialist in the NBA and it’s compounded by the fact that game in and game out we watch the other team’s defensive specialists get leeway to be super physical with Cade. He’s constantly getting whistled for soft contact.
I’m not even disputing that the Pistons play physical and foul a lot, they definitely do, but they also heavily rely on drives and getting to the rim and often don’t draw fouls for drawing the same contact that they initiate on defense. Either call it both ways or not at all.
The Cavs have been incredibly physical this series, especially on Cade, without getting whistled a ton.
lol he got away with so much shit last night then they call him on this bs. It’s ironic cuz he shoulda fouled out in the first half but he gets away with so much more.
I didn’t think it was all that bad either until game 5, that sorta tipped me over the edge. I’m usually the guy telling fellow Pistons fans that they’re overreacting to the refs cuz DvE has infected everything lol. But I do feel like the disparity in what each team is or isn’t allowed to do has been pretty large the last two games.
DvE came about from the 2014 Lions season. And it was entirely justified. Multiple games that season where you could point directly to the refs for the outcome. Cost the Lions the playoffs. And when you play the Chiefs in 2025 and they’re the first team in a half century to not get a single flag in an entire game, it’s kind of hard to ignore. It’s included in basketball as well. Even baseball, where a perfect game is stolen from the Tigers when the runner was clearly out. There are reasons and they aren’t illegitimate.
Trust me, I’m well aware of the Detroit Sports fan victim complex.
I tend to agree, even with the ft discrepancy, I still don’t feel like they are actively hosing the pistons any chance they get, but this one is crazy. To remove a top 5 defensive player of the year type player over him being pushed? Wild
pistons need to foul less. right guys?
I mean they are pretty hacky this is just a terrible call.
“Not gonna get these regular season calls in the playoffs.”
Guess that’s not a thing anymore.
This should never be a foul at any level. Something is up with that ref.
Average calls for the Cavs btw
Cleveland had no answer for Ausar so the refs took care of it
Charmin soft
This ref had it out for Thompson the whole game for some reason. Of course they would never call Mobley for doing the exact same thing a half second before
Probably because of the hit he laid earlier in the game, didn’t want a fight to break out or anything like that, so called Thompson really tight.
Straight to prison. That’s attempted murder. NBA is rigged in favor of the pistons…
I just want robot refs they dont even need to be correct just fuckjng consistent. so annoying now the rules arent the rules until we decide they are or if the basket didnt go in. im sick of the arbitrary
Standard Cavs call
Wonder if the ref’s parley paid off?
Soft.
Standard call for the softest team in the league.
This kind of call is why people saying “but this team shoots more free throws” as an argument when fans of a team complain about the refs is dumb af
Who instigated the contact. This time its clearly Mobley. Im near certain every other time its the pest defence of Detroit. Let em playyyy
I would love to hear the refs explanation on that one. The fuck? Shit, Mobley was more physical than Ausar right there literally a second before you call that “foul” how the fuck can you justify that?
When refs target players.
I’m surprised they didn’t eject him on this one.
Imagine if Caruso had this whistle
Dude, NSFL tag, please. I was not prepared for gore in this sub
Damn man. Prison ball on full display.
Can we talk about the Thompson brow ridge?
Dudes could headbutt a tank and be fine
Mobley gets away with a shove, but a tiny bump is a foul, cool cool
Assaulting lol…stop it
“Assaulting”. Soft ass Cavs team
If the refs wanted him out the game why didn’t they just give him a flag 2 earlier?
Ngl it just felt like the refs were being weird all night from the very first foul in the game.
hArD fOuLs oNlY
can that be a foul sure it a weak foul at that, You see stuff like this through the whole game if you really pay attention where it never called.
That is not a foul at all. You can see that on every play even on regular season. They playing basketball not chess.
This is. Frankly. On every dribble up the floor on any play with pressure. If this was a foul then the stupid feet entanglement at the end of game 5 was too.
Call his actual fouls and he still would’ve fouled out, but don’t call this shit. This shit just validates the narrative that the refs have an agenda.
It’s a poor call but it was definitely an intentional move by Ausar and probably called to ensure no further escalation. Not sure why everyone is blaming the refs for this, if you have 4 fouls you should have the presence of mind not to shoulder check a guy at 3⁄4 court
Edit: entitled, unflaired Pistons fans are really the worst
Absurd. That should never be a call, reg season or playoffs.
Acting like this is some kind of NBA reffing conspiracy is what’s really absurd
An intentional shoulder check on a player away from the ball, without any intention of a screen action, as a retaliatory move after a preceding screen action should 100% be a foul every time. Will something like this be called every time? No, but it should be. And that’s the problem.
Your claiming that tiny bump was “an intentional shoulder check” should 100% be a foul every time is absurd. As is your dropping the “NBA reffing conspiracy” nonsense.
Relative to the dozens of no-calls with much more contact in every game (INCLUDING the 2 hand pushoff from Mobley as shown), that retaliatory nothingburger should never result in a foul call.
You can’t really believe what Mobley did was a screening action. lmao. Pure trolling at this point.
Double handed shove by Evan was what exactly? Wasn’t even attempting to get in a screening position, ref looked right at it and didn’t call a foul, which it was.
My guy doesn’t watch basketball.
Hey, I found Steve Javie’s Reddit account!
Come one, man. You have to be trolling.
You’re right, he throws his shoulder in, it’s a foul. Pretty clearly a call to prevent escalation. NBA fans are, generally, extremely stupid and reactive, they don’t know what they’re looking at.