The Thunder’s dirty tricks beat Spurs in Game 2, but it didn’t look anything like basketball

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s whole deal is their ability to blur the line between playing with physicality and playing dirty. The Thunder finished with the NBA’s No. 1 defense each of the last two years in large part because they have great defensive personnel, but also because they correctly assume the refs can’t call a foul on every play. The Thunder like to grab, hold, and hack their way to demoralizing the opposing offense, and on Thursday night they used every trick in the book to beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals to even the series 1-1.

The talk after Game 1 was that Isaiah Hartenstein was unplayable for the Thunder because he allowed Victor Wembanyama to roam free defensively against a non-shooter. After only playing 12 minutes in the opener, Hartenstein was on the floor for 27 minutes in Game 2 to finish with 10 points, 13 rebounds (eight offensive), and three assists. Hartenstein had a number of questionable sequences that didn’t really look like basketball in OKC’s win, including this moment where he blatantly pulled the hair of Spurs guard Stephon Castle and didn’t get called for anything.

Castle did get him back with arguably the dunk of the year on his head, but it wasn’t enough to quell OKC’s shameless tactics.

Wembanyama turned in an all-time great playoff performance in Game 1 to finish with 41 points and 24 rebounds. In Game 2, he was “held” to 21 points and 17 rebounds largely because Hartenstein was body slamming him at every opportunity.

It looked like Hartenstein was a football player on the offensive line the way he was mauling Wemby all night. The Spurs superstar couldn’t establish deep post position with Hartenstein pushing him out of the way. He was also getting grabbed and held any time a rebound was available or he tried to get open for a pass inside. Hartenstein even hooked his arm several times, which should be an automatic foul, but largely went uncalled. Hartenstein ended the game with four fouls, but it sure felt like he could have been called for 10.

The fact that the Thunder couple their constant hacking on defense with flopping on offense is the biggest reason why most NBA fans find this team so distasteful. My two cents on this is that a lot of the flopping allegations for the Thunder are a bit overblown. OKC only finished No. 17 in free throw rate this year. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a brilliant player, and his success can’t be reduced to foul hunting. Yes, SGA will exaggerate contact in ugly ways at times, but he was also one of the league leaders in drives per game, and driving constantly is one way to get the other team to foul you.

SGA’s free throw rate was lower than Austin Reaves’ this season, and about the same as Devin Booker and Luka Doncic’s, but those players aren’t talked about the same way. Now with that caveat out of the way …. the Thunder certainly do their fair share of flopping. Here are two egregious examples from Game 2.

I’m not a Thunder hater. I respect what they’ve built as a small market time, and it’s hard to blame them for gaming the rules if they continue to get away with it. I will say that basically everyone in my social circle absolutely hates OKC, though. Is it just because they’re champions? I don’t remember the 2024 Celtics, 2023 Nuggets, 2022 Warriors, or 2021 Bucks being loathed in the same way.

The Thunder needed every ounce of physicality to win Game 2. This Western Conference Finals series is producing some incredible basketball — and also plenty of moments that honestly look more like football.