Thunder vs. Spurs is collapsing under its own weight

The Spurs lose Victor Wembanyama's minutes for the first time in almost three months. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander still can't hit shots ... unless they are from the free throw lines. The refs are losing control by trying to take control.

Good morning. It's Free Newsletter Wednesday. Let's basketball.

Let's get this out of the way: Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals was a bit of an officiating mess. The series has been called pretty well despite difficulties – Oklahoma City and San Antonio have each definitely had advantage games, and the officiating hasn't been a huge storyline. That changed in Game 5, mostly because the teams combined for 70 free throws. That's 20 more than in Game 4. The inconsistency of what contact gets whistled and what doesn't must be confusing for two of the most physical teams in the NBA.

A game with a tight whistle is probably going to advantage the Thunder, because they have the supreme NBA foul-drawer in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He shot 17 free throws. He recognized how the Tony Brothers crew was going to call the game, and he played accordingly. This doesn't mean that San Antonio didn't foul Shai all those times. It means that what is a foul worthy of free throws keeps changing in this series, and everything was a foul on Tuesday. Those foul shots rescued SGA from another game in which he was inefficient from the floor (7/19, at or under 40% for the fourth time in five games) and had six turnovers on nine assists. San Antonio's defense has done as good a job on Shai as anyone in the league has the past two seasons ... but he cannily got multiple Spurs in foul trouble and made it all up at the line. He's a brilliant offensive player and finds a way to get points.

Victor Wembanyama picked up 12 free throws, too. Even those couldn't rescue his worst offensive performance of the series (4/15 from the floor, 0/5 from three, 1 assist and 2 turnovers). Wembanyama is feeling the series: he was invisible on offense early, and then started trying to force the issue as San Antonio fell further behind. He had a negative plus-minus for the first time since March 1 (-8). He also skipped the media after the game. A real eyebrow raiser for someone who has not seemed annoyed by the opportunity to talk in the past and, as Sam Amick notes in that piece, was named the most media-friendly player this season.

The pressure is heavy. The series is feverish. The mood is shifting. Everyone's tight, and not quite themselves. Shai isn't quite himself. Wembanyama isn't quite himself. De'Aaron Fox wasn't himself. It's getting weird.

At least Mason Plumlee was totally himself.

That's a nasty hit that deserved a look at the monitor. Once the Spurs waved the white flag, Brothers and his merry crew decided to speed run the end of the game, I guess. But that was a nasty hit against a player who has been driving San Antonio nuts since Ajay Mitchell went down. Not that Jared McCain has been universally good – he was a mess in Game 4 – but he's annoying the Spurs. And Plumlee straight-up plowed into him immediately after entering the game. Suspicious.

There's really no telling where this series will go next. After Game 4, that uncertainty felt like exuberance. But it's getting heavy, and the sheer weight of the ramifications of this series might bend the series itself – the actual basketball – to the point of breaking.

Here's to a lighter Game 6, and perhaps 7.

At Least One Legislative Body In American Is Still Functional

The NBA Board of Governors is expected to approve the 3-2-1 lottery reform on Thursday. I wrote a bit about it at the end of April and will do more on it once we have official rules. Tim Bontemps has a good piece on the pros and cons. Getting rid of the G League rosters as the worst teams try desperately to lose games is a huge benefit, and I really am excited to see if more teams pivot toward a competitive approach. I still think the cliff between being one of the better non-play-in teams and a play-in team is a concern, and I'm very nervous some team will eventually tank a play-in game to boost their odds. There has to be a hammer to punish that. But as we've learned, the league has trouble defining even egregious tanking.

Bontemps briefly mentions the "credits system" at the end of his piece as a potential future solution that's being bandied about. Zach Lowe discussed it in some detail in his recent podcast conversation with John Hollinger. There's a short explanation here, as well. Super weird and intriguing. I'm actually of the mind that complexity is not an issue. There's no chance five out of 10 NBA fans understand how the existing lottery works! And none of us understand what's a foul, what's traveling, what can be reviewed when. And that's actual basketball, not the conference room antics we're dealing with here.

Links

Dan Devine on Knicks legends officially passing the torch to Jalen Brunson. Hell yeah.

Kelly Dwyer with a great recap of Game 5.

Is there a difference between realizing you can win it all, and knowing how? Find out on Thursday.

Marc Stein with lots of murmurs from the Blazers coaching search. Jeff Van Gundy?!

The great Rodger Sherman on the New York Knicks.

One strange part about being a Knicks fan under 60 is a nostalgia for teams that did not even win championships. We fondly look back on the 1994 team, which made the NBA Finals and lost, and the 1999 team, which made the NBA Finals and lost. So in some ways, it feels like this team has already reached the promised land. But there are still games on the schedule, and I’m starting to wonder: What if it the Good Old Days could be even better?

Jared Dubin says goodbye to the Cavaliers. Speaking of which, reports indicate Kenny Atkinson is not getting fired.

Howard Beck on how many teams actually don't believe the Thunder and Spurs are unbeatable. GOOD.

Got 'em.

Alright, be excellent to each other.