Undermanned OKC Thunder statement victory: 3 takeaways

Capela sends Adams to lockers early via flagrant foul:

Injuries will always play a factor in the season but when core players are out it can be the difference in being able to compete especially versus the upper tier. So, entering the game on Monday not having Nerlens Noel, Terrance Ferguson or Abdel Nader put the Thunder in the downward position from the tip.

Less than a minute and a half later at 10:24 of the first quarter, Steven Adams turned to block out under the rim in order to grab a rebound and Clint Capela came flying in jumping on top of the Big Kiwi and pulling him to the ground. It was a flagrant (unnecessary) foul. Adams was injured, left the game and didn’t return.

Capela never made a play for the ball and probably knew he couldn’t reach it anyway so flailed grabbing at Adams. Did he go into the paint looking to injure the Thunder center — no — he’s not that type of player. Nonetheless, it was a thoughtless, dangerous foul and the subsequent flagrant assessed was appropriate.

That the Rockets broadcast crew tried to pin it on Adams was shoddy reporting. Look– I get home crews are loyal and carry a certain bias but this crew watches James Harden take advantage of all the rules.

Harden hooks his arm through his opponents and flops more than anyone in the league – but that broadcast crew doesn’t call those infractions out. Hey in their minds Harden never flops. When someone pushes off they are quick to cite it but Harden who pushes off constantly is being impeded by the defender who in their minds is clearly in the wrong.

DeMar DeRozan already outed his childhood friend telling media they get together in the summer to find the areas of the game they can exploit to “legally” draw fouls and what moves they can use to trap opponents and trick refs.

I watch a ton of games and have listened to every broadcast crew and while the Celtics Tommy Heinsohn is definitely biased towards his Bean Town crew he’s almost comical – even his broadcast partners laugh at him. But this Rockets crew is the worst so much so that I’ll be putting them on mute the next time I watch a Rockets game.