On Saturday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder saw their 16-game winning streak come to an end with a narrow loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the semifinal round of the NBA Cup in Las Vegas. The Thunder didn't get much going from the outside in this game and saw relatively quiet games from Jalen Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander en route to the loss.
One controversial moment occurred toward the end of the game when Thunder guard Alex Caruso went after a rebound on an intentionally missed free throw from Williams and tried to launch it at the basket to tie the game. Caruso appeared to get some contact from Spurs wing Devin Vassell in the process, but nothing was called.
After the game, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault spoke on the incident, per Tim McMahon of ESPN.
“I don't know, maybe,” Daigneault said on whether or not a foul should have been called. “But when we play like that, I just am not going to come up in here and rail about the officiating. No one wants to hear that, to be honest with you.”
Overall, the Thunder have garnered a reputation over the last couple of seasons for getting away with way more contact than other teams in the league on defense, so some fans found it rich that they were complaining about the officiating after the loss.
Still, the Thunder will get two more shots at the Spurs over the coming weeks in an attempt to avenge Saturday's loss. The first of those matchups will come on December 23, before a rematch two days later on Christmas Day in Oklahoma City.
The game on December 23 is set to take place in San Antonio at 8:30 pm ET.
