{"id":17936,"date":"2025-05-08T06:38:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T06:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/17936\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T06:38:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T06:38:12","slug":"even-patrick-beverley-thought-nuggets-were-wronged-by-refs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/17936\/","title":{"rendered":"Even Patrick Beverley thought Nuggets were wronged by refs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instant reaction from the Nuggets\u2019 149-106 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2<\/a> of their second-round NBA Playoffs series:<\/p>\n

1. Scott Foster strikes again!: You know a game\u2019s taking a truly weird turn when Patrick Beverley is crying foul. Literally. The quotable ex-NBA guard raised a flag during the first half of an ugly Nuggets-Thunder Game 2, posting to X that, \u201cThey calling this game a lil diff.\u201d<\/a> Darn straight. With 8:10 left in the contest, the Nuggets had been whistled for 27 fouls to OKC\u2019s 19. But the gap felt a heck of a lot wider than that. And even so-called neutral observers went to social media to point out that officials seemed to have two strike zones: While the Thunder could get handsy with Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets were whistled early and often for just looking at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wrong. Not to dredge up conspiracy theories, but it should be noted that Wednesday was veteran official Scott Foster\u2019s first game back on the sidelines in two months. So \u2026 yeah.<\/p>\n

Nuggets destroyed by Thunder in Game 2 as Nikola Jokic fouls out in third quarter<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

2. Should Adelman have pulled his dudes earlier?: That said, the refs aren’t the reason why OKC couldn’t miss from downtown. Not to give hockey guys some love, but remember the Avs’ glorious 4-0 win over Dallas in Game 4? Feels like a decade ago, but hear us out. Stars coach Pete DeBoer pulled his starting goalie, Jake Oettinger, before the third period with Colorado up 3-0 because he knew his No. 1 guy needed a reset, that there wasn’t a likely path back into the game, and that it was going to be a long series. So with his team down 104-69 with 5:17 left in the third quarter, why did interim coach David Adelman have all five of his starters on the floor? Because if this is going to be a long series, you need to know when to walk away from a lost cause \u2014 and when to run.<\/p>\n

3. The worst kind of history: If you love negative superlatives, Wednesday’s disastrous first half was for you \u2014 on about 35 different levels. With 0.5 seconds left, Chet Holmgren’s two free-throw makes \u2014 yep, two makes \u2014 gave the Thunder 87 points at the halftime break. That’s not just a new Nuggets all-time worst for points given up in a postseason game \u2014 it’s the new NBA record for the most points a team has ever put up in a half of a playoff contest. The old record, 86, was set by the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals. The Nuggets weren’t just a mess defensively. They were a walking dumpster fire. The Thunder drained 71% of its first-quarter attempts from the floor and raced out to a 45-21 cushion after a period. OKC shot a 59% clip in the first half while turning the ball over just twice. Woof.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: May 7, 2025 at 10:18 PM MDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Instant reaction from the Nuggets\u2019 149-106 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2 of their second-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,366,305,250,301,187,3943,5042,165,252,6,1220,11,253,302,4097,310,179,4098,66,198],"class_list":{"0":"post-17936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-chet-holmgren","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-david-adelman","12":"tag-denver","13":"tag-denver-nuggets","14":"tag-denvernuggets","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-latest-headlines","17":"tag-more-nuggets-news","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nba-finals","20":"tag-nba-playoffs","21":"tag-nikola-jokic","22":"tag-nuggets","23":"tag-nuggets-takes","24":"tag-oklahoma","25":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","26":"tag-sean-keeler","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-sports-columnists"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114470840157235517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}