“Awful”: Shaq and Charles Early in the evening, the Denver Nuggets did not appear to be a championship team after the first half of Game 2. In the first quarter, Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns not only outscored every member of the Nuggets team, but their aggressive play also raised emotions in Denver’s corner. And a large portion of it stemmed from the refereeing not working in Denver’s favor, which irritated head coach Mike Malone and the team as a whole and even led to a fight between Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley.
“Awful”: Shaq and Charles Early in the first quarter of Game 2, things became heated as the Timberwolves continued to play physically. First, KAT appeared to elbow Jamal Murray in the chest during a high contact play in the post, sending the point guard to the ground. Shortly after, Anthony Edwards finished a layup by running through KCP. Mike Malone and the referee got into a heated argument as a result of the authorities failing to issue an offensive foul on either KAT or Ant-Man despite the aggressiveness. Charles Barkley then referred to the KAT no-foul as “awful” and stated, “I understand why coach Malone was mad,” during the TNT halftime show. Someone was just run over by Karl-Anthony Towns.
“Awful”: Shaq and Charles Barkley thought KAT should have been charged, but Shaq defended the Timberwolves center, disputed any infraction, and said the Nuggets defenders should “stop flopping.” It’s the postseason. Having delivered such identical strikes in his heyday, Big Diesel maintained that a defender falling does not automatically result in a foul.
Despite Shaq not agreeing with him, Barkley stuck to his point and even threw the officials of the Knicks versus Pacers game under the bus to establish his argument, “Just like them boneheads in the New York Knicks game earlier kept making bad calls. That was a charge.” A very controversial situation took occurred at MSG earlier tonight when Myles Turner was penalized for an illegal screen on Donte Vincenzo, a call that might have contributed to the Pacers losing the first game of the series.
“Awful”: Shaq and Charles However, regardless of the officials’ missteps, Barkley also applauded the Timberwolves’ lockdown defense in the first half to stave off the Nuggets. Even though the Timberwolves are playing without their defensive anchor Rudy Gober, they took care of business in the first half, prompting the Nuggets to turn the ball over eleven times. Adding eight blocks and seven steals on the board, the Timberwolves were a nightmare for the defending Champions. Moreover, they limited Denver to only 35 points in the first half, one of their poorest performances in recent playoffs.
Article Source essentially sports
