The Thunder didn’t lose this game just because of Joey Crawford — they were down 20 points in the third quarter to Memphis and that wasn’t on the refs — but somehow when Joey Crawford is the referee it always ends up being about Joey Crawford.
The situation was this: Oklahoma City was down two with 27.5 seconds left in overtime when going for a rebound Tony Allen went over the back of Kevin Durant and fouled him, sending Durant to the free throw line for two. Durant drains the first one, it’s now 100-99 Memphis.
Then just as Durant starts his free throw motion referee Joey Crawford blows his whistle and sprints out to stop the shot, taking the ball away from Durant. Crawford them went over to the scorers table to correct the number of team fouls on the scoreboard, yelling at the board operators. Then he returned to reset the free throw.
His rhythm blown, Durant misses the second free throw.
The final score, 100-99 Memphis.
And Crawford is in the spotlight again.
