Thunder dominates Kevin Durant with relentless fouls all night

On Sunday night, the Phoenix Suns faced the Oklahoma City Thunder in a tough contest made even more difficult by the fact that they were on the second night of a back-to-back. Making matters worse, they also entered that game without Devin Booker, who is nursing an ankle injury. Booker’s absence, in particular, meant that the responsibility to carry the Suns’ offense fell on the very capable shoulders of Kevin Durant.

However, Durant did not have the best of scoring nights; facing the likes of Luguentz Dort and Jalen Williams, Durant put up just 20 points (which is paltry for his standards) on 6-15 shooting from the field and 6-6 from the line. While the Thunder had top-tier defenders to take on the Durant assignment, head coach Frank Vogel believes that the OKC defense got plenty of leeway from officials when it comes to how much contact was allowed when guarding the Suns star, even dropping an NSFW rant to vent his frustrations.

“We’ve got to be better. [But] I’ll start by saying they fouled the s**t out of Kevin Durant all night. Whether he has the ball and he’s getting stripped three, four, maybe even five times, and every time he tries to get open, he’s being held, which is something I really want the league to look at,” Vogel said in his postgame presser, via ESPN.

Of course, it’s disingenuous to fully discredit the Thunder for the type of defense they played on Durant that limited his impact on the game. OKC threw double teams towards the Suns star on plenty of occasions, which made him more of a decoy. But Frank Vogel’s frustrations may be indicative of what is a league-wide phenomenon.

Some fans have wondered recently as to why referees give defenders who are considered elite more leeway for physicality; this can be seen in one telling instance last week when Patrick Beverley looked like he had fouled DeMar DeRozan plenty of times, only for the officials to swallow their whistles. Meanwhile, the Thunder had Luguentz Dort and Jalen Williams, who may be getting the same preferential treatment.

Nonetheless, the Suns are doing their part by calling out the officials, and Kevin Durant will be especially pleased to hear that his team has his back in this regard.