Things are starting to get chippy between the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder in their best-of-7 first round series.
Before Game 2, Charlie Villanueva interrupted the Russell Westbrook and Cameron Payne pregame dance which prompted the Thunder All-Star guard to aggressively push the Mavs reserve forward and rookie Justin Anderson out of the way. Then in Game 3, Raymond Felton hit Steven Adams with a forearm shiver after he got popped by the Thunder center on a box out.
The Felton-Adams altercation highlights the physicality of Game 3, as each team was called for 27 fouls. However, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle believes that the Thunder got away with a few more calls. Including Mavs center Salah Mejri receiving an "unprovoked elbow" from Kevin Durant.
From The Oklahoman's Anthony Slater:
Basically unprovoked, Carlisle brought up the multiple altercations from Game 3. He blamed the Thunder for initiating it. Then he specifically called out Kevin Durant for an elbow to Salah Mejri and hinted that the league should look at the plays.
"There were four of what I would categorize as non-basketball physical altercations initiated by them," he said. "Including one intentional unprovoked elbow at the free throw line which I didn't understand. And I've never seen a guy like Kevin Durant ever do that to a player. Then ultimately that led to two more escalations between the teams. The fact that that was missed, I'm concerned about that. There's no place for that in our game. But they were clearly the initiators last night."
Here is the play where Durant elbowed Mejri, who appears to sell the contact:
Even if the Thunder were called for the plays Carlisle talks about, it wouldn't have made an impact on the game. The Mavs were just routed at home by the Thunder in Game 3.
Carlisle may be trying to stir up this controversy as a way to fire up his team and plant seeds in the officials' minds. The Mavs need any advantage they can get since the Thunder, up 2-1, look like the far better team.
