The San Antonio Spurs may very well find themselves eliminated from the playoffs at some point here soon.
In the midst of a hard-fought series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, a ton of questionable calls have overtaken the narrative in this dramatic set.
None more so alarming than the large amount of bad calls at the end of Oklahoma City’s Game 2 win, calls that went in both teams’ favor.
The always deep-thinking Gregg Popovich, normally about as sarcastic as it gets, really doesn’t understand the point of the NBA sending out an officiating report on the final two minutes of each game.
To the Spurs head coach, such reports do nothing in the grand scheme of things:
“You’d have to ask them exactly why they do it,” Popovich said, via ESPN. “It doesn’t change anything. For the people involved, it’s very frustrating because there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Pop went on to indicate that the said reports are good for transparency, which enables the NBA to admit mistakes. Though, he did take further issue with them:
“But it is frustrating when things happen like what happened in Game 2 and the last game at the end. But again, officials aren’t doing that on purpose, They’re going to miss things, it’s a tough deal. I’m absolutely frustrated and angry that the calls weren’t made.”
To be clear, NBA officiating during the playoffs has been extremely frustrating to most observers of the game. Pop is in no way alone in this sentiment.
He’s also 100 percent correct in drawing the conclusion that these reports do nothing in terms of changing the outcome of the game.
San Antonio looks to fend off elimination Thursday night in Oklahoma City. Let’s hope the game moves along without any more drama surrounding the officiating.
The next time we hear Scott Foster’s name shouldn’t be in the context of a bad call. I think we can all agree on that.