OKC Thunder's Mark Daigneault has Mindset Away from Reffing Concerns

There's another layer to the Western Conference Finals that could creep up as the series chugs along.

After some notably aggressive defense by the Golden State Warriors on Rudy Gobert in the second round that went uncalled, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Chris Finch made his complaints duly noted. In his opinion, the physicality was all out of sorts.

"On defensive rebounding, they did a lot of fouling, holding, shoving, pushing, and tackling Rudy," Finch said after Game 1. "That's clear. We sent a bunch of those clips in to the league. In fact, I'm not sure I know another player in the league with Rudy's pedigree that is allowed to be physically beaten on the way he is. We gotta address that, one way or another."

Since then, his criticisms have dampered, but things could change if Finch sees the game being called a different way than he likes. The Oklahoma City Thunder has a reputation for getting to the free-throw line a lot — whether or not it's actually warranted.

There hasn't been a time in the NBA where reffing wasn't controversial. The job is bound to have arguments and frustration, because somebody is always getting the short end of the stick.
Sometimes you just have to live with it, and that's what Thunder coach Mark Daigneault plans to do.

“We prepare the team for the games first of all," Daigneault said. "I said this in the Denver series because it came up there too — teams, players, coaches are going to use the media to try to influence the whistle as a competitive advantage … my mentality on that is it’s the Western Conference Finals."

As the playoffs get deeper, the physicality starts to grow. It's up to the referees' discretion to make the right call or not, but the game is rightfully going to be different than a normal regular season one. To Daigneault, the outside noise doesn't need to be an influence.

On the same token, referees aren't inherently primed to be influenced, either.

"The guys working these games aren’t here for an accident," Daigneault said. "I don’t think they’re influenced by anything I say or nothing our team says. I don’t think they’re compromised by what anybody else says.”

Should reffing become an issue against Minnesota, Daigneault and Oklahoma City have a gameplan on what to focus their attention on the most. Ultimately, both sides just want fairness.