Suns big man Jusuf Nurkic was none too pleased with the officiating during their 118-110 loss to the Thunder on Sunday night.
On Sunday night, the Phoenix Suns had to deal with the herculean task of overcoming the Oklahoma City Thunder on the second night of a back-to-back despite missing the services of Devin Booker. The Thunder, especially, made life extremely difficult for Kevin Durant, as the Suns star faced plenty of double teams throughout the night. But Suns center Jusuf Nurkic, who returned to action after exiting their Saturday night game vs. the Houston Rockets early, did everything in his power to help keep the game close.
The Thunder may be one of the most talented teams in the association, but they have a glaring weakness and Nurkic was able to exploit it. Despite the Suns’ 118-110 loss to OKC, Nurkic established himself as a beast on the interior, pulling down 31 rebounds, with 13 of them coming on the offensive end.
However, Jusuf Nurkic, much like his head coach Frank Vogel, believes that he got the short end of the stick from the officials, as the Bosnian beast thinks that he should have attempted at least one free throw after battling all night long to grab a franchise record in boards.
“It’s kind of really messed up when you have 13 offensive rebounds and 16 shots then zero free throws. As hard as I work, and I feel like [I’m] getting fouled as [much as] anybody in the league. And I’m not here saying — we lost the game, it is what it is — [but] it’s just, it’s not really common sense. At least one [free throw]. [To] not even have one? But I know it happens. I ain’t the first one, and I ain’t going to be the last, either, unfortunately,” Nurkic said in his postgame presser, via ESPN.
Jusuf Nurkic was certainly a handful in the paint, and one would think that he would get hacked on one of his 16 shot attempts on the night. Alas, the Suns as a whole simply didn’t get the benefit of the doubt from officials even though the game was at their home turf.
Overall, it has been a frustrating back-to-back set for the Suns, although they will now have to regroup as the schedule doesn’t get any easier. (They have the Denver Nuggets up next on Tuesday at 10 PM E.T.)
About the Author
Jedd Pagaduan is a certified Clippers and Gunners fan, which means he’s a very sports-traumatized individual. He now writes about sports instead as a form of therapy.
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