They feel it. You see it. The physicality in these NBA Playoffs is palpable, and most teams are sensing the shift.
Some, like the Oklahoma City Thunder, even seem satisfied by it.
“It feels like how we used to play at the park, you know what I’m saying?” center Chet Holmgren said. “There’s no playing for a foul out there. You gotta play to get a bucket. If you played to get a foul at the park, somebody would just take the ball and go home. I’m all for it.”
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Postgame scrums have doubled as meetings — calls for intervention, really — by players and coaches over foul regulation. Minnesota coach Chris Finch noted that he felt that officials have gone “way too far on the physicality.”
That was before Game 2 of their series. Let alone the dance of elbows and flying scissor kicks that the Warriors versus Rockets has become.
The Thunder has looked around, awaiting its next opponent, and hasn’t exactly lost sleep over it.
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Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein (55) fights for the ball with Memphis Grizzlies center Zach Edey (14) during Game 2 of the NBA playoff series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Memphis Grizzlies at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City , Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Oklahoma City won 118-99.
“I think you’ve got to embrace it to an extent,” Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein said Wednesday. “At the end of the day, that’s more the ref’s job to figure out where the line is. We just kind of match the physicality or we try and come in and set the tone in the physicality department. At the end of the day the refs control that aspect of how physical the game’s allowed to be and then we have to adjust to them.”
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Few seem to be as in tune with the league’s officiating trends as Thunder coach Mark Daigneault. Asked what he’s seen transpire in these playoffs, Daigneault pushed back on the notion that general fouls have seen a radically blind eye.
“If you look at league trends, I think they’re actually calling more fouls now than they did in the regular season,” Daigneault said. “They’re calling more off-ball fouls, they’re calling less shooting fouls, they’re calling less illegal screens. We’re tracking it closely. I think the games are more physical. There’s probably more actual fouling going on and the whistle hasn’t reflected that per se, but it’s not like they’re calling less than they did in the regular season.”
Perhaps Daigneault checked out for the night before Monday Night Raw — “the 9 p.m. starts are not built for me,” he said Wednesday when asked if he caught the Nuggets and Clippers live — when Warriors forward Draymond Green used all his available personal and technical fouls, seemingly never quite swinging his feet and flailing his arms to the point that that night’s officiating crew ever considered removing him from the show.
Beyond the more subtle contact, the exchanges that are more difficult to see for those watching live, coaches and players alike — namely Finch — have noted a sort of brutality that’s emerged in this postseason. One unlike that of the regular season in frequency and tolerance. A general acceptance of skirmishes and hooks and everything else that likely doesn’t fall into the tally of the numbers Daigneault’s crew is tracking.
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Then again, Daigneault might not be up in arms about the physicality or the way it’s being regulated because his team has been among the most ferocious groups in the NBA all season.
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Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault walks on the court during Game 2 of the NBA playoff series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Memphis Grizzlies at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Oklahoma City won 118-99.
OKC finished the season called for the sixth-most fouls on average (19.9), while inversely having a bottom-five free-throw rate in the league. It grew to expect its on-ball pressure, its switching and its positional size to all draw whistles. And it grew to expect that those not named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — members of the team have even lobbied for his whistle — to not receive similar treatment on the other end.
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Daigneault and his team have been screaming about it from the mountaintops for a season.
It’s worth noting that three of the teams (Orlando, Detroit and Memphis) that were whistled for more fouls on average during the regular season are involved in these playoffs. Still, OKC’s nature has pushed it closer to the other end of the spectrum with the postseason shift.
The Thunder, through four first-round games, averaged 18.8 fouls. Among the 16 playoff teams, that’s the sixth-lowest mark. Only two Western Conference teams have fouled less on average: The Nuggets and the Rockets.
“We harp on playing through contact,” said All-Star Jalen Williams after Game 4, asked if OKC has benefited from any changes in officiating. “I think the same way teams have made us feel, we try and replicate that. We’ve got really good players that can do that defensively.”
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Now, after likely benefiting from the shift in tolerance this postseason, the Thunder is singing the same tune it had when its whistle was among the worst in the regular season.
“We really don’t care, to be honest with you,” Daigneault said. “We just want it to be fair and consistent. We want to know what we’re getting night to night and we want to know what we’re getting end to end. If we’re getting a consistent whistle night to night and they’re allowing a lot of physicality, we’ll adjust.”
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Joel Lorenzi covers the Thunder and NBA for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joel? He can be reached at jlorenzi@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @joelxlorenzi. Support Joel’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Why OKC Thunder is unbothered by physicality seen in NBA Playoffs