Kevin Durant took over on Saturday night for the Warriors, carrying Golden State to a 102-91 victory with 38 points and 13 rebounds as the rest of the Warriors’ offense struggled to get going. It was the best game by Durant this postseason and proved that his calf strain that kept him out part of the Portland series was no longer a lingering issue.
Not only did Durant put the series on ice by leading Golden State to a Game 3 win and 3-0 lead, but the star forward showed an intensity that isn’t always common during the game. Durant got into it with the Jazz mascot, jawed with a fan, and had a scuffle with Rudy Gobert late in the fourth quarter that saw him get hit with a technical and a flagrant 1.
Warriors' Kevin Durant blasts Jazz's Rudy Gobert in the back pic.twitter.com/PMPVNmxCYW
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) May 7, 2017
After the game, Durant was asked about that kerfuffle with Gobert and being assessed a flagrant 1 for his shove. Durant told reporters, via ESPN’s Chris Haynes, that he thought it wasn’t worthy of the call, and felt it was a push for a push and shouldn’t have been anything more than that.
“It’s just basketball,” Durant said. “You push me, I pushed him, and you move on. But that’s why they call our league soft … because they call a flagrant for stuff like that. But I’m sure he didn’t mind if we just moved on. I didn’t mind if we just moved on with the play.”
One of the primary complaints of former players about today’s game has been that the league has gone soft. This is said a lot when it comes to the increase in flagrant foul calls (and stars resting), and that’s especially the case in the playoffs when the game is supposed to get more physical. You’ll hear the term “playoff foul” used to describe a hard foul that ends up getting called a flagrant now. It’s clear that Durant also thinks the league has gone too far in policing hard contact and minor altercations.
In this instance he felt a shove from Gobert and came back at him with a two-handed push of his own. That led to a little bit of a brouhaha between the two and some words, but not much more. Technical fouls were certainly in order, and I don’t think Durant would really argue that, but the shove eliciting a flagrant on top of the technical felt excessive to him.
He has a case, as he didn’t go upside Gobert’s head or anything, but the league will stand by it, saying the letter of the law calls for it (use of excessive contact or force), and the refs were probably right to try and nip it in the bud and keep the end of that game from getting too chippy or out of control.
