Jaden McDaniels said he wasn’t frustrated when he committed a flagrant foul on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the fourth quarter of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 118-103 Game 2 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I just wanted to foul him for real,” McDaniels said nonchalantly. “I wasn’t even mad. I just had fouls to use.”
The officiating has become more of a story in the Western Conference than perhaps any other season in recent memory due to Gilgeous-Alexander’s ability to make contact during shot attempts, forcing the officials to call fouls. The officiating may not be the biggest reason for Minnesota’s third-quarter collapses. Still, it’s worth investigating how frustrating it has been for the Wolves.
At first glance, the foul differential doesn’t seem that glaring. In Game 1, the officials called 22 fouls on each team. Oklahoma City only shot five more free throws than the Wolves (26 to 21). In Game 2, Thunder finished with 22 fouls to 20 for the Timberwolves, and the Wolves shot two more free throws in the loss (26 to 24).
On the surface, the box score shows the Wolves have nothing to complain about. The officials have called the Thunder for 44 fouls to Minnesota’s 42. OKC has only shot 3 more free throws over the 96 minutes of game time despite having the dreaded “home whistle.”
However, the timing of the fouls and the way the referees call them have been enough to raise suspicion.
The Thunder benefited from the whistle in the first quarter of both games. In Game 1, the refs called the Wolves for 7 first-quarter fouls, including 2 on Rudy Gobert in the first 100 seconds of game time, which essentially took him out of the game early. The refs also called a foul on Minnesota’s four other starters, and they gave one to Naz Reid off the bench.
They also called five fouls on the Thunder, but the two-foul difference between teams amounted to an 11-3 free-throw advantage for Oklahoma City.
The Timberwolves had a three-point lead after one quarter. That free-throw differential likely contributed to keeping the Thunder in the game and tamping down Minnesota’s physicality as they looked to set the tone.
Minnesota experienced a more extreme free-throw differential in the first half of Game 2. The officials called four fouls on the Wolves and one on OKC, resulting in a 6-0 free-throw advantage for the Thunder. That differential grew to a 10-1 lead at halftime, with the Timberwolves out-fouling Oklahoma City 9-5.
The Wolves fouled early and often in both games, which put them at an immediate disadvantage. However, the players who drew the fouls add to the frustration.
Gilgeous-Alexander has drawn 21 fouls through two games against the Wolves, which have resulted in 29 free-throw attempts. Comparatively, Anthony Edwards leads the Wolves in fouls drawn this season, and only has 9 for 17 free throws.
Therein lies the root of the foul frustration. It’s not so much that the Thunder gets more calls than Minnesota. It’s that Gilgeous-Alexander draws fouls at over double the rate that anyone on the Wolves does.
Gilgeous-Alexander draws a foul in roughly every 3:45 minutes of gameplay that he is on the court. 47.8% of Minnesota’s total fouls have been on Gilgeous-Alexander. He’s already drawn fouls leading to 12 free throws against McDaniels, which is 4 fewer free throws than he has drawn against Christian Braun in last year’s seven-game series with the Denver Nuggets.
After laying out the data, we should acknowledge that the officiating has not been the only, or even biggest, reason that the Wolves are down 0-2 in the conference finals. Still, the officiating didn’t benefit the Timberwolves on the road.
The Wolves return home for Games 3 and 4, and the series is still far from over. The Wolves will adjust their game plan to win both home games and even the series. They will also have the home whistle, which ideally will blow less often in favor of Gilgeous-Alexander.