Tonight, as the Phoenix Suns fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Cup quarterfinals by a demoralizing 49 points, one moment captured all the attention. Suns guard Grayson Allen tried to fight through a screen, pushing his body into Thunder center Chet Holmgren, and was subsequently ejected. However, Allen didn’t seem convinced of the call.

“Felt like I gave a good foul within the physicality of the game,” Allen told Suns reporter Duane Rankin after the game. “Some of the hits on block-outs that were happening… He was cutting into me. Definitely a foul, but I thought it was within the physicality of the game.”

The foul itself took place in the third quarter, with 5:18 left, with the Thunder up 94-58. As Holmgren appeared to set the screen, Allen extended both arms, knocking Holmgren down, leading to a small scuffle between the two teams. Afterward, referees replayed the sequence, eventually assessing him with a flagrant 2, ejecting him immediately.

Allen claimed to be surprised with the call, telling Rankin that he thought the explanation of the foul was “the description of a flagrant 1.” He compared it to a recent Suns game, when they faced off against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Back then, Rudy Gobert had been ejected for elbowing Mark Williams in the back mid air as the latter went up for a layup.

According to the NBA, a flagrant 1 foul is called for “unnecessary” contact, whereas a flagrant 2 is contact that is deemed both “unnecessary and excessive,” with the key difference being severity, windup, and potential for injury. There is some gray area, which is left up to the officials’ judgement, and that’s where Allen’s grievances arise.

Escalation in Physicality Takes Over As the Suns Fall To the Thunder

What made the whole sequence feel odd to Grayson Allen was how predictable the rise in intensity had been. The Oklahoma City Thunder are a hard-nosed, defense-oriented team, and any matchup with them is a test of endurance. The Phoenix Suns are a feisty team, and especially when the offense stalls, tried to respond by matching the tone.

“As players, we just play off of… what does or doesn’t get called and try to match the lines,” Allen told Rankin. “I think our game against them got more physical as it went on with us matching their physicality and them matching our physicality.”

Players adjust possession by possession, and what referees allow sets the tone for how hard players are allowed, but some of the Suns’ players didn’t feel like they brough the intensity tonight called for.

“I played kind of soft today,” forward Dillon Brooks told the media. “I should have been mixing it up more instead of Grayson. They called two quick ones and I was weak.”

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Brooks led the team in scoring tonight, logging 16 points, followed by Allen, who scored 10. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander outscored both of them by himself for the Thunder, logging 28 points on 11-15 shooting. After tonight’s game, the Thunder move onto the Cup semifinals in Vegas against the San Antonio Spurs.