The San Antonio Spurs dropped Game 2 on the road to the Thunder, 122-113, for several reasons, but the most egregious one won’t be discussed as much as it should. It’s my honor to ensure it gets discussed as it should. OKC is a dirty team. Most fans know it. Many media members have discussed it. And we all just watched them lean into it in a desperate attempt to avoid a 2-0 deficit, and it worked.
Don’t get me wrong, there were other factors at play in the loss. Devin Vassell missed a ton of wide-open shots to start the game, Stephon Castle turned the ball over way too many times, and Luke Kornet has been unplayable in the series. But despite all of those things, the game could have looked completely different had the referees done their job and called Oklahoma City on their egregious behavior.
Refs can’t let Hartenstein have a free-for-all on Wembanyama
He’s an alien. We get it. It’s hard to defend Victor Wembanyama. That doesn’t mean you get to grab his arm, pull him down when he’s jumping, or wrap your arms around his body. Isaiah Hartenstein was in the game for one reason, and that was to irritate and rough up Wemby. He did that, but most of his acts weren’t really savvy. They were blatant. Yet they went uncalled.
😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/DDqFwgrq9r
— Automatic (@automaticnba) May 21, 2026
From the very start of the game, OKC’s starting center was grabbing the 7’4″ superstar with two hands to prevent him from actually playing basketball. I don’t know what Hartenstein was doing, but hooping wasn’t it. It was much closer to MMA than the game that we were all in front of our televisions to watch.
Don’t even get me started on Hartenstein pulling Castle’s hair with nary a call in sight. This was a horrifically officiated ballgame.
The NBA let the Thunder turn Game 2 into an ugly spectacle
Don’t let the numbers fool you. When you go back and check the stats, you’ll see that both teams racked up 21 personal fouls—dead even. The rationalist in you will believe that means the refs called the game right down the middle. However, that’s far from the truth.
Evenness does not equate to fairness in sports. Sometimes, one team is getting away with things they shouldn’t, and the disparity deserves to be greater on one side. In Game One, Chet Holmgren intentionally steps on Wembanyama’s foot as a free throw goes up to stop him from going for the rebound.
They slap him in the face, elbow him in the head, push him with both hands, and will grab him with two hands without shame. Some of their acts could very well injure the Spurs star if he’s going in one direction while they’re pulling him in another. Yet the referees swallowed their whistles for San Antonio while rewarding ugly flopping from the Thunder.
this is just SHAMELESS 😭 pic.twitter.com/yoQwUVj9ht
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) May 21, 2026
This is one of several reasons why the majority of NBA fan bases are rooting against OKC. They’re unlikeable. They get an unfair whistle. They’re dirty. The Spurs had enough to deal with after learning De’Aaron Fox would miss his second consecutive game, then losing Dylan Harper to a hamstring injury in the third quarter, without also fighting underhanded tactics the zebras seemed okay with.
They couldn’t overcome it all tonight, but they were close, and that’s still encouraging. Unfortunately for the Thunder, they lose Jalen Williams to another hamstring injury, so both teams could potentially be forced to fight out the rest of this series at less than 100%. Whether or not that’s the case, the refs need to do a better job of protecting players when one team decides that straight-up basketball isn’t enough.
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