Subscribe
Follow Us
This year’s NBA Playoffs have featured some of the toughest, most physical basketball in recent memory—making the whistles Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drew in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals feel completely out of place. One Thunder fan on Reddit compiled every foul call involving SGA during Game 1 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, highlighting just how many soft or questionable whistles he received.
[Highlights] All the 12 fouls Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drew tonight. 7 shooting, 4 non-shooting, and 1 loose ball.That was another foul that was successfully challenged, so the NBA does not count it (it's in the video).Western Conference Finals, 2025 NBA Playoffs. HD version
byu/MrBuckBuck innba
The level of foul-baiting was hard to ignore, and the way officials catered to him seemed to break from the more rugged standard set throughout the rest of the postseason.
The Thunder earned their Game 1 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Gilgeous-Alexander's trips to the free-throw line didn’t decide the outcome. Oklahoma City completely shifted the momentum in the third quarter, when SGA took only two free throws. Still, the way officials treated him throughout the game defied explanation.
Timberwolves fouls on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Even when Gilgeous-Alexander wasn't heading to the free-throw line, the whistles he drew were hard to believe. At one point, he drove to the basket, lost his footing without any contact, and still got the foul call from the officials.
Jaden McDaniels placed a light arm on Gilgeous-Alexander before the drive, but officials let that go. The whistle came only after SGA fell to the floor untouched. The Timberwolves challenged the call, and it was eventually overturned on review—but it never should have been called in the first place.
In another sequence, with McDaniels defending, Gilgeous-Alexander drove to the rim and drew a foul despite minimal contact—certainly not enough to send him to the floor. Later, he barreled into Anthony Edwards and exaggerated the contact to earn an and-one, once again benefiting from a questionable whistle.
If this happened in the regular season, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal. Those kinds of calls are frustrating, but they happen all the time. The difference is that this year’s playoffs have been unusually physical. Even star players aren’t getting many whistles. But in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, Gilgeous-Alexander got the kind of treatment that completely clashed with how the rest of the postseason has been called.
While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s foul calls were not the deciding factor in Oklahoma City’s Game 1 victory, the officiating raised serious questions. In a postseason marked by physical play and limited whistles for star players, the calls awarded to Gilgeous-Alexander stood out as inconsistent. The disparity in officiating drew criticism from fans and analysts alike, casting a shadow over an otherwise hard-fought Thunder win to open the Western Conference Finals.c
