The Warriors' Western Conference semifinals against the Grizzlies kicked off at the Grizzlies' home court, and the two teams were very close in strength and had already tied the knot in last season's playoffs, so the series was given high hopes by fans before it began. The first game between the two sides did not disappoint, the two teams fought until the last minute to divide the winner, the Warriors with Thompson's key three points to win the Grizzlies 117:116 to win the opening.
Although the game process of this campaign is extremely exciting, at the same time, the referee's decision has also caused a lot of controversy, including many penalties that make the outside media and fans feel extremely confused, and these penalties also reflect the stark contrast between the warriors and the Grizzlies in this game. The first occurred in the final moments of the second quarter of the game, when the Grizzlies organized an offense and the ball passed to Clarke under the basket, green, who had lost his defensive position, had to take foul tactics against him. In this foul, Green tugged at Clark's jersey and threw him heavily to the ground.
Although the foul seemed to be very aggressive, Green did not have the malice of hurting people, and when Clark fell to the ground, Green also had protective movements for him, and the latter was not injured as a result. Judging from the league's decision on such an action, this foul was at best a first-degree malicious foul, allowing the Grizzlies to get two free throws and one throw, but the referee sentenced Green to a second-degree malicious foul after repeatedly watching the video, and directly expelled him. Both Green and the Warriors players were very puzzled by this decision, but the referee was still unmoved, so that Green could not play in the entire second half, which also greatly affected the Warriors' defense in the second half.
In an interview after the game, Cole said the referee's explanation to him at the time was that Green punched Clark in the face and threw him maliciously to the ground. But in fact, from the slow-motion replay, Green's actions are not so exaggerated at all, and the referee is completely exaggerated, which has also been questioned by many media and players. They also sided with the Warriors, among them, All-Star Mitchell directly said that this could not be blown off the second-level malicious foul, many reporters and commentators also fought for the Warriors, and the famous magician Johnson also tweeted after the game that he believed That Green should not be expelled.
In fact, without the next few controversial penalties, perhaps the expulsion of Green's malicious foul would not have been so hotly discussed. The decision has caused the Warriors and Warriors players to be very dissatisfied, but in the second half of the game, the referee's decision is still extremely unfavorable to the Warriors. Among them, with more than 5 minutes before the end of the game, the score of the two teams is still very anxious, and Curry collided with Dillon of the Grizzlies in a breakthrough. Both from the situation at the time and from the slow-motion replays, it was a defensive foul on Dillon. But the referee immediately blew Curry's offensive foul, and the unconvinced Warriors also chose to challenge.
Judging from the slow-motion replay, Dillon clearly did not stand in the defensive position in advance, and he also had a clear left-sided body movement when Curry broke through, which was undoubtedly a defensive foul. According to the reveal after the game, the response of the replay center to the referee at that time was Dillon's foul, but the referee insisted on blowing Curry's offensive foul. The penalty had a big impact on the game, on the one hand, the Warriors lost a timeout due to the failure of this challenge. On the other hand, if the referee had made the right decision at the time, Dillon would have gone off early for receiving a sixth foul, but this would have ended up curry's fifth foul.
In addition to this blow for foul mistakes, the referee's last-minute decision almost killed the Warriors. When Thompson hit the crucial three-pointer and Morant's layup was blocked, the Grizzlies adopted a foul tactic on Thompson, and when the two teams competed for rebounds after the latter rarely missed two free throws, even the fans on the sidelines could clearly see that Dillon touched the ball out of the bottom line, but the referee insisted on blowing the penalty without even looking back. Ultimately, the Grizzlies, who jumped to the ball, lost the game during the offensive round due to Morant's missed layup again. While the Warriors still won the game, if Morant hit a layup, the outcome of the game would be completely changed by the referee.
Judging from the multiple penalties awarded in this game, the referee is undoubtedly on the side of the Grizzlies and almost single-handedly let the Warriors lose the game. In addition to this, the referee of this game behaved exactly like an amateur, and there were many cases of whistles on the field too late. In the first 47 minutes of the game, the game was repeatedly interrupted by the referee looking back at the slow motion, but in the last minute of the game, the referee did not make any review when the ball was clearly the Grizzlies touching the bottom line, and such a decision also caused strong dissatisfaction after the game.
As the media said after the game, some reporters directly angrily sprayed the referee, saying that the Warriors won the first game in the case of "5 to 8" (five Grizzlies players plus three referees). The main reason why the referees have such a big problem in the decision in this game is that they hope that the Grizzlies, who are sitting at home, can win. However, this has only caused the Grizzlies to take on more pressure, after all, they eventually lost the game, and many fans are currently mocking the Grizzlies for not being able to win with the help of a referee, and have begun to have great doubts about the prospects of the Grizzlies in this series.
The Warriors' win was also very difficult, and in the face of Green's expulsion, multiple unfavorable decisions by the referee, and Thompson's two mis-penalties in the last moment, they still won the opening goal by one point on the road, and did not be destroyed by the referee's unfavorable decision. Judging from this game, after being widely questioned by the outside world, the referee in the next game will most likely not carry out such a bad blow penalty against the Warriors as this game.
The Grizzlies failed to win under such favorable conditions in this game, and the next game will only get harder and harder for them. While their eventual victory over the Timberwolves in the first round of the series was momentumable, facing the championship-winning warriors, they had to make more adjustments in every aspect.