Was Game 4 rigged for OKC?

[rand]

As Bill Simmons would say, it was "massaged". The NBA has a clear motive for the finals to go as many games as possible. They arent going to outright rig it but they have no problem making it much harder for one team to win than the other team. In a fairly called game OKC would have been getting blown out by halftime, OKC had one made three at halftime and only three made 3s for the entire game, thats unheard of for any team to win an NBA finals game on the road in the modern age while shooting that poorly. 99.9% of the time that game would be a blowout

I agree, the NBA benefits from the series going more games and that gain could serve as motive for them to engineer the desired outcome.

But the NBA had an even more clear motive to put the Knicks into the Finals instead of the Pacers. Why didn't they "massage" a Knicks win in that series? Just a couple of well-placed rigged calls/no-calls in NY's favor would almost certainly have swung both of games 1 and 2.

[rand]

Does a bear **** in the woods?

What do ursine defecation habits have to do with NBA officiating?

[Wingy]

Scott Foster no called SGA traveling but the Pacers need to do better. The three ball didn't fall for OKC so they worked the Pacers in the paint.

Points in the paint
OKC 50
Indy 36

Rebounds
OKC 43
Indy 33

By the NBA’s cheesy af rules, that wasn’t a travel.

Do I think it was a travel? Heck yes. But with the whole NBA “gather step” non-sense…it was fine by that standard.

Now push-off? Yes. SGA gets away with too many. Then again the defenses all playoffs are allowed a ton of contact, and I like it. But with that in mind, I don’t need to hear conspirators literally cry foul every time the offense gets away with one.

Re: the rebounding edge you noted, that’s even with the refs calling a number of fouls on OKC during rebound battle situations.

[Statlanta]

OKC had one made three at halftime and only three made 3s for the entire game, thats unheard of for any team to win an NBA finals game on the road in the modern age while shooting that poorly. 99.9% of the time that game would be a blowout

Good/Great teams win in multitude of ways. Hell in the 2022 championship run for the Warriors there were multiple games they would outrebound the Steven Adams Grizzlies(a younger Steven Adams pre-injury). There's no one way to win a game even in the modern era.

[JujitsuFlip]

The Pacers have benefited so much from bad ref calls on this playoff run, it's an automatic no for me lol

[ball_takes23]

As Bill Simmons would say, it was "massaged". The NBA has a clear motive for the finals to go as many games as possible. They arent going to outright rig it but they have no problem making it much harder for one team to win than the other team. In a fairly called game OKC would have been getting blown out by halftime, OKC had one made three at halftime and only three made 3s for the entire game, thats unheard of for any team to win an NBA finals game on the road in the modern age while shooting that poorly. 99.9% of the time that game would be a blowout

It's really not unheard of.

OKC dominated Indy in the paint, on the boards, and OKC only missed four free throws (34-38). Pacers shot 25-33 from the line.

There is more to basketball than making three pointers and OKC just proved it to you. You seem to have a difficult time grasping that.

its a lot easier to dominate in the paint when Caruso and Dort are allowed to maul Hali on and off ball, making it impossible for him to get into the paint, while Indiana is getting called for touch fouls on the other end.

If an NBA game were to be rigged for one team that team is going to have more points in the paint a vast majority of the time.

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its also easier to get more points in the paint when obvious charge calls get called as blocks

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[ChumboChappati]

No, it wasn't rigged, many correct calls in Pacers faviur could have easily been overlooked if refs wanted to fix the outcome, but even if people claim it was rigged based on obvious officiating wrong calls, it's not on them to find out the motives.
If the evidence points at something, it's not the viewer job to go find motives for it, but the league to investigate, this asinine notion that you must point out the bias and explain the motive is how Donaghy wasn't investigated by the league but by the FBI because of gambling and his bad calls didn't trigger a league invesigation.

great point. There have been too many red flags regarding NBA; NBA has the reputation of being the most corrupt of the major 4 leagues whether it is drafts, or trades or referees. NBA needs to clean up for fans to start believing in it.

[ball_takes23]

As Bill Simmons would say, it was "massaged". The NBA has a clear motive for the finals to go as many games as possible. They arent going to outright rig it but they have no problem making it much harder for one team to win than the other team. In a fairly called game OKC would have been getting blown out by halftime, OKC had one made three at halftime and only three made 3s for the entire game, thats unheard of for any team to win an NBA finals game on the road in the modern age while shooting that poorly. 99.9% of the time that game would be a blowout

I agree, the NBA benefits from the series going more games and that gain could serve as motive for them to engineer the desired outcome.

But the NBA had an even more clear motive to put the Knicks into the Finals instead of the Pacers. Why didn't they "massage" a Knicks win in that series? Just a couple of well-placed rigged calls/no-calls in NY's favor would almost certainly have swung both of games 1 and 2.

the NBA literally brought Scott Foster in for game 3 of that series after Indiana took a 2-0 lead. and it was also one of the worst called games of the playoffs. oh and you guessed it - the team trailing 2-0 ended up winning.

this is the same Scott Foster that had hundreds of calls with Tim Donaghy in his cell phone records.

[MrPainfulTruth]

People want to act dumb by pretending rigging can be measured by FTA's when it has been discussed several times here HOW OKC gets the favorable treatment. Whoever pretends not to see it at this point when it went on all season, and lead to several headcoaches breaking character on live TV, wont be convinced by the most obvious of evidence. Everyone else knows already whats going on and who is supposed to win it all this year. Out with the old, in with the new - crown the new face of the NBA and buy his jersey!

[rand]

As Bill Simmons would say, it was "massaged". The NBA has a clear motive for the finals to go as many games as possible. They arent going to outright rig it but they have no problem making it much harder for one team to win than the other team. In a fairly called game OKC would have been getting blown out by halftime, OKC had one made three at halftime and only three made 3s for the entire game, thats unheard of for any team to win an NBA finals game on the road in the modern age while shooting that poorly. 99.9% of the time that game would be a blowout

I agree, the NBA benefits from the series going more games and that gain could serve as motive for them to engineer the desired outcome.

But the NBA had an even more clear motive to put the Knicks into the Finals instead of the Pacers. Why didn't they "massage" a Knicks win in that series? Just a couple of well-placed rigged calls/no-calls in NY's favor would almost certainly have swung both of games 1 and 2.

the NBA literally brought Scott Foster in for game 3 of that series after Indiana took a 2-0 lead. and it was also one of the worst called games of the playoffs. oh and you guessed it - the team trailing 2-0 ended up winning.

this is the same Scott Foster that had hundreds of calls with Tim Donaghy in his cell phone records.

That didn't address my question.

[Bergmaniac]

I love how so many of the same people who rarely miss a chance to claim NBA is fixed in favour of the big market teams are now firmly in the "NBA is fixing it for the smallest market team".

[Wingy]

People want to act dumb by pretending rigging can be measured by FTA's when it has been discussed several times here HOW OKC gets the favorable treatment. Whoever pretends not to see it at this point when it went on all season, and lead to several headcoaches breaking character on live TV, wont be convinced by the most obvious of evidence. Everyone else knows already whats going on and who is supposed to win it all this year. Out with the old, in with the new - crown the new face of the NBA and buy his jersey!

Huh. Strange.

Haliburton
1. Is American
2. Has all the crazy late-game heroics, and not afraid to stand out with theatrics (Reggie choke)
3. Has Pops (any non-egregiously bad attention is good attention)
4. At least to me, Haliburton is tiers above SGA in terms of personality and charisma.
5. Is apparently good buds with America’s biggest current “it” athlete in Caitlin Clark

Seems like Hali is MUCH, MUCH more marketable than SGA.

[dedned]

The Thunder’s “historic” defense is really just trash fouling all game. And they rely on the refs to bail them out time and time again. No one likes a dirty team.

Pacers have been the exact same way the whole playoffs. Their d is just hacking and hoping the refs don't call it.

[Hoop Hunter]

People want to act dumb by pretending rigging can be measured by FTA's when it has been discussed several times here HOW OKC gets the favorable treatment. Whoever pretends not to see it at this point when it went on all season, and lead to several headcoaches breaking character on live TV, wont be convinced by the most obvious of evidence. Everyone else knows already whats going on and who is supposed to win it all this year. Out with the old, in with the new - crown the new face of the NBA and buy his jersey!

Huh. Strange.

Haliburton
1. Is American
2. Has all the crazy late-game heroics, and not afraid to stand out with theatrics (Reggie choke)
3. Has Pops (any non-egregiously bad attention is good attention)
4. At least to me, Haliburton is tiers above SGA in terms of personality and charisma.
5. Is apparently good buds with America’s biggest current “it” athlete in Caitlin Clark

Seems like Hali is MUCH, MUCH more marketable than SGA.

Tell me about it. Where's our calls? I want calls dammit!

I want to know how it feels to have people complaining about those darn Pacers get away with everything.

One can have a dream. I wonder if I'd feel guilty?

[Nuntius]

Nope.

[shi-woo]

The Thunder’s “historic” defense is really just trash fouling all game. And they rely on the refs to bail them out time and time again. No one likes a dirty team.

This. It's not rigged in the sense that Adam Silver and the gang of goons are sitting around a table smoking cigars trying to figure out how to screw IND. It's the refs simply letting one team play a certain way, not allowing the other team to match that physicality, and then bailing them out when they need it.

Nesmith and Nembhard simply are not allowed to guard SGA the same way Dort is allowed to guard Haliburton. It's night and day, and in the 4th it becomes so apparent because it lead to easy FT for SGA and stopping the clock, but Hali gets smacked around.

The blatant push off fouls from SGA have been beaten to death. You have to make those calls, he's literally throwing these dudes into the first row at this point. I get not calling that in the end of game situations, but all game allowing a player to do this? To not even call one of those? When he hit a midrange shot in the 4th the announcers literally said he's just taking advantage of the fact that the defender knows they can't get too close to him or it will be a foul

Refs controlled the 4th quarter of this game. That's what rigging a game means to me because refs are inherently bias, and when you slow th game down, force teams to score against set defenses and make tough shots, that usually favors one team, and usually the team with the defense getting the favorable whistle and star getting superstar calls.

It's like having a March Madness game in your home state essentially

[Miami_Lux]

People want to act dumb by pretending rigging can be measured by FTA's when it has been discussed several times here HOW OKC gets the favorable treatment. Whoever pretends not to see it at this point when it went on all season, and lead to several headcoaches breaking character on live TV, wont be convinced by the most obvious of evidence. Everyone else knows already whats going on and who is supposed to win it all this year. Out with the old, in with the new - crown the new face of the NBA and buy his jersey!

Oh look a Nuggets fan. Surely an unbiased opinion here...

[Wingy]

Tell me about it. Where's our calls? I want calls dammit!

I want to know how it feels to have people complaining about those darn Pacers get away with everything.

One can have a dream. I wonder if I'd feel guilty?

Probably coming next season, or I’ll be surprised if they don’t. Then again, Hali is in a tough spot. Him keeping the ball moving is what makes them great and difficult to defend even for OKC’s elite D. Can’t dial in on anyone. There are times they struggle when he needs to be more aggressive. It’s a really tough and delicate balance.

In general though, I don’t see anything crazy with the way OKC is whistled. Nothing inconsistent with NBA history. MVPs always get calls. The aggressor and those with built up reps (ie - OKC D) usually gets rewarded in sports, and refs won’t and can’t call everything.

Anyway, it has crystallized for me the past few days. Haliburton really is primed to be marketed heavily by the league. Not “the face,” but he can be one of the faces. They’ll probably just keep pushing Old Man River in LA though because they’re idiots.

[threethehardway]

I swear NBA fans have to be the dumbest sports fans on Earth.

Why would you spend your time watches something as unimportant, not worthwhile as a professional basketball game that you think is rigged?

Not only you think the game is rigged, you think the lottery is rigged, you think superstars are manufactured like it's the WWE, you think ever star player wants to be in LA, Miami, or NYC.

Then you spend your time, paying attention to media outlets who intentionally keep you uninformed about the game of basketball, and they'll tell you things are rigged.

Basically, you are a fool, a mark, a chump, an idiot. You watch fake sports and everyone is in on it.

The entire NBA ecosystem is designed to manipulate and con you out of your time and money but you watch it anyway.

[Bergmaniac]

The Thunder’s “historic” defense is really just trash fouling all game. And they rely on the refs to bail them out time and time again. No one likes a dirty team.

This. It's not rigged in the sense that Adam Silver and the gang of goons are sitting around a table smoking cigars trying to figure out how to screw IND. It's the refs simply letting one team play a certain way, not allowing the other team to match that physicality, and then bailing them out when they need it.

Nesmith and Nembhard simply are not allowed to guard SGA the same way Dort is allowed to guard Haliburton. It's night and day, and in the 4th it becomes so apparent because it lead to easy FT for SGA and stopping the clock, but Hali gets smacked around.

The blatant push off fouls from SGA have been beaten to death. You have to make those calls, he's literally throwing these dudes into the first row at this point. I get not calling that in the end of game situations, but all game allowing a player to do this? To not even call one of those? When he hit a midrange shot in the 4th the announcers literally said he's just taking advantage of the fact that the defender knows they can't get too close to him or it will be a foul

Refs controlled the 4th quarter of this game. That's what rigging a game means to me because refs are inherently bias, and when you slow th game down, force teams to score against set defenses and make tough shots, that usually favors one team, and usually the team with the defense getting the favorable whistle and star getting superstar calls.

It's like having a March Madness game in your home state essentially

I must have been watching a different series because I see the Pacers getting away with the same time of physicality on defence all the time in this series.

Shai shot a total of 2 FTs in the first 44 minutes of last game, BTW, with Nembhard and others being in his grill all the time and daring the refs to call all their bumps and pushes. To say they weren't allowed to get close to him by the refs in this particular game is simply laughable.