“They’re Excellent…and Flopping” - Rich Reacts to the OKC Thunder Going Up 2-0 on the Lakers

The Oklahoma City Thunder are 2-0 up on the Lakers, and Rich opened the show by trying to capture the two things he cannot reconcile about them.

"They are excellent, and they are flopping," Rich said.

Both halves of that sentence have evidence in last night's game.

The excellent half came out of every box he could check. Two monsters in the middle in Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein. A generational slasher and shooter in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, currently working on a back-to-back MVP. Alex Caruso. A transition game Rich called lightning fast, where any Laker mistake immediately became two or three on the other end. A young perimeter defense. And a coaching staff led by Mark Daigneault, whose courtside face Rich described as "calm, but he looks at you like either he smelt it and you dealt it."

The flopping half was the Chet Holmgren moment. He took an elbow to the chest and reacted, in Rich's phrasing, like Kramer getting hit by Roger McDowell's loogie. The Lakers challenged. They won the challenge. Holmgren was officially busted for the flop and called for an offensive foul.

"I don't understand why the NBA doesn't penalize this with a fine," Rich said. "Like that should cost."

There was a second example in the same game. SGA threw himself at the basket without contact and flopped so hard he knocked two Lakers down and rolled into Marcus Smart's ankle. He got called for the offensive foul on that one too. The free-throw line, despite all the noise, showed only a five-attempt edge for OKC.

That is the part of the conversation that frustrates Rich most. The flopping is not actually why OKC is winning.

"You want to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, then in the non-SGA minutes win them," Rich said. The Lakers did the opposite. SGA picked up two fouls in the first quarter, then a fourth, and when he sat the Thunder still ran away. The man doing the running was Jared McCain, who went 7-for-11 from the field, 4-of-5 from three, on the way to 31 minutes Rich described as unstoppable. Cason Wallace and AJ Mitchell added plays around him.

The Lakers got 31 from Austin Reaves on 10-of-16 shooting. LeBron James added 23. The bench bled them 46 to 20. Jared Vanderbilt was out. The depth gap, Rich said, was the difference, with or without the calls.

The night's loudest soundbite came from JJ Redick at the postgame podium. The Lakers head coach said LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player he has ever seen. He pointed to the second-most career free-throw attempts in league history and the fact that James drives into contact constantly without getting calls.

Rich both understood and pushed back. He understood the frustration. He also noted that no player has shot more freebies in the league's history than two specific names, and James is one of them.

LeBron, asked the same question after the game, gave a one-word answer.

"I don't know," he said.

Then the strangest moment of the night, captured on a sideline shot. Austin Reaves gathered the referees postgame, with LeBron standing behind him nodding, and what appeared to be a league official watching. Rich said he had never seen anything like it.

His read on the series matched his read on the Thunder generally. The Lakers are out-gunned. Without a perfect game, similar to the Michigan teams he watched get rolled by Ohio State, there is no shot. And with this Thunder team, any imperfection becomes points.

That, more than any single flop, is what makes them excellent.