The biggest storyline coming out of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 136-125 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday happened off the basketball court.
In a three-point game with six minutes remaining, Jalen Williams was not allowed to check in despite being on the scorer’s table to sub in following an OKC turnover.
Instead, the Warriors quickly inbounded the ball and scored two points in transition as Williams flung his arms in the air in disbelief.
Following the bucket, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault berated the officials for allowing the game to continue without letting Williams have the chance to check into the game.
Mark Daigneault was beyond angry after OKC was not allowed to sub in a player pic.twitter.com/bjTBT2mGFo
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 5, 2023
Daigneault was eventually hit with a technical foul and needed help from Thunder assistants to not go after the officials. It didn’t result in OKC’s loss, but it fired up fans on social media to see Daigneault go after the referees for a critical mistake.
After the loss, Daigneault talked about the confrontation and said what got him super upset was the double standard they were dealing with, as he cited an earlier example of the Thunder trying to do the exact same thing but were denied by the officials:
“They knew that that was a mistake. Here’s my frustration with that – When there’s a dead ball like that, the officials kinda have discretion on how quickly to inbound the ball.
Players in the league – (Draymond) Green was the inbounder there – have figured that out and they go over there and they compel the official basically like, ‘Gimme the ball, gimme the ball.’ And with some players in the NBA – clearly Green being one of them – they just throw the ball in.
There’s three officials on the court. Jalen (Williams) is at the scorer’s table. I checked him in possessions before to get him in for defensive possessions. They inbound the ball so fast, that none of them even recognized that there’s a sub, which is the equivalent of an umpire walking a guy on three pitches.
Now, I have to call a timeout to get the sub in. They scored on the ensuing possession. I was getting one of our better defenders in the game and I get a technical, so that oversight by them cost us three points and a timeout.
Earlier in the game – 5:57 third quarter – there’s an out-of-bounds on Golden State. Lu Dort’s the inbounder, same official; Lu Dort’s begging for the ball – doesn’t give it to him. Same situation. That’s why I lost my mind because that was in front of our bench.
That to me is something that we feel regularly as the youngest team in the league. But that one – for a sub to be up and for the ball to be inbounded so quickly that they don’t see the sub, I was beside myself on that obviously.
But with that being said, credit to Golden State – it’s not why we lost the game. It was a one-possession game at the time. They closed better than we did. It had nothing to do with the outcome but that’s where the frustration comes from.”
When asked if the officials acknowledged the mistake, Daigneault said they did but that the damage was already done as it resulted in three points for the Warriors.
“They can’t give us the points or the timeout back,” Daigneault said.
In the official pool report, head official Courtney Kirkland also acknowledged the mistake and said that Williams should’ve been allowed to sub immediately following OKC’s turnover.
“We did not recognize that Jalen Williams was at the scorer’s table when the ball went out of bounds. Because he was at the scorer’s table he should have been allowed to come into the game, but we did not recognize that he was there. It was our error, and he should have been allowed to enter the game.”
Daigneault’s full answer can be viewed below, as he was visibly frustrated with the miscue:
Mark Daigneault explains why he was frustrated with the refs blowing the JDub check in. ⬇️
The blown check-in was clear. And the issue was exacerbated by t’ing up Daigneault after the mistake.
TIL you actually can get a tech for chewing out the refs in Chase Center. Who knew. pic.twitter.com/a1sWPwgovE
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) April 5, 2023
