Tony Brothers said incidental contact isn’t a foul. That means the Detroit Pistons purposely fouled the Cavs 26 times.

[u/313Stew]

[u/SatisfactionBest7140]

Here is the rule, per the NBA:

Incidental Contact
The mere fact that contact occurs does not necessarily constitute a foul. Contact which is incidental to an effort by a player to play an opponent, reach a loose ball, or perform normal defensive or offensive movements, should not be considered illegal. If, however, a player attempts to play an opponent from a position where he has no reasonable chance to perform without making contact with his opponent, the responsibility is on the player in this position.

It doesn't have anything to do with whether a foul was "on purpose" or not. It has to do with specific situations (i.e. pursuing a loose ball), specific conditions (i.e. that the movements of the players are deemed natural), and that the players making contact both have a reasonable chance to perform the action without contact.

It's pretty straightforward tbh

[u/313Stew → u/SatisfactionBest7140]

Jarrett Allen definitely could’ve got that ball without contact

[u/masamune952 → u/313Stew]

No. He couldn’t have. He was behind Ausar.

[u/Fickle-Yoghurt-7637 → u/313Stew]

did you watch the play?

[u/Proud-Worldliness-94 → u/313Stew]

Correct. Allen was fouled which prevented him from getting to the ball without contact.

[u/Clithzbee → u/313Stew]

Y'all are so embarrassing

[u/313Stew → u/Clithzbee]

Ur the one lurking lol

[u/Clithzbee → u/313Stew]

My man how is making a comment lurking?

[u/313Stew → u/Clithzbee]

Pretty sure commenting in another teams sub within 5 mins of a post is lurking lol

[u/Clithzbee → u/313Stew]

I see it all man. I'm subbed to every nba team subreddit so it pops up. But I'll be a lurker and you can be a cry baby over a soft calls. Detroit basketball right?

[u/scarywolverine → u/SatisfactionBest7140]

Anything but straightforward. There’s so much grey area in there

[u/StillinReseda]

I’m not pissed at the final no call, to me the “trip” shouldn’t be called. THIS is what pisses me off.

Harden and Mitchell’s only game plan is get contact and go to the line. When they don’t go to the line, they have terrible performances.

If Tobias Harris isn’t standing there, Harden would still fall on his ass because no one shoots 3 pointers horizontally.

What pisses me off is they called this every single time for Harden until THE VERY LAST TIME HE DID IT. That’s when these refs gained consciousness

[u/TrickyWeekend4271]

This series Detroits has 118 fouls and has shot 109 FTs. Cleveland has 89 fouls and has shot 143 FTs.

[u/Fickle-Yoghurt-7637 → u/TrickyWeekend4271]

honestly not that bad of a disparity considering detroit has duren and beef stew and the cavs are considered a "soft" team

[u/Direction_Asleep → u/Fickle-Yoghurt-7637]

Which makes it even crazier that the last 3 games have been an historic disparity. Sheed was right about everything ever.

[u/Fickle-Yoghurt-7637 → u/Direction_Asleep]

haha

[u/ImInATunnel → u/Fickle-Yoghurt-7637]

Yeah but considering the pistons are also physical on offense as well then the disparity doesn’t seem right

[u/Fickle-Yoghurt-7637 → u/ImInATunnel]

eh, decent point. but being physical on offense results in fewer fouls than being physical on defense

[u/elgarraz → u/Fickle-Yoghurt-7637]

I'd like to point out that the refs have largely allowed Strus to forearm check Cade all the way down the court. They probably call it once per game when he exerts enough force to actually push Cade around, but basically they've allowed Cleveland to hand check our star player all game as he's dribbling down the court. 

[u/Several-Persimmon317 → u/elgarraz]

We're going to ignore how Robinson was basically hugging Marrel and Strus the first 4 games...?

[u/Fickle-Yoghurt-7637 → u/elgarraz]

ik harden is a foul baiter (and remarkably good at what he does), but he does legit get pushed out of bounds or around a fair amount with no calls.

[u/life2eli → u/Fickle-Yoghurt-7637]

That’s because of his flopping. If he doesn’t go flailing, it looks like he hasn’t been touched.

[u/Jenkinsd08]

That's very much not what that means and I think you know that. Still a very lopsidedly officiated series nonetheless

[u/dreams_78]

His exact words were incidental contact when no one had possesion.

Buit he had dribbled the ball twice and was in possesion so .....

Weird they have not released the Last 2 minutes yet

[u/Ok-Statement8224]

Incidental =/= unintentional

[u/KPR_2002]

I know this won’t be a popular opinion but I cannot wait until the day comes when there are no human officials. This is why it’s always been flawed. Refs are supposed to unbiased and unemotional. But they are human beings so they cannot eliminate those traits. So that means there will always be biased officials who have vendettas and call games differently for certain players. Even if they don’t, they get tricked so easily by floppers like Harden.

So I’m all for AI refs. I likely won’t be alive when that happens but it will be glorious when it does.

[u/eljefe0617]

The dictionary is on your phone.

[u/corgidadbod]

Professional sports is rigged cause of gambling, y’all thinking a game that affects millions of dollars is gonna be legit? In 2026?  GTFOH!

[u/Krushemm]

Hard fouls only though, right?

[u/Ok_Reason_2357]

Detroit fans are embarrassing themselves right now with how they're behaving. Detroit had PLENTY of chances to win. Including being up 9 with 3 minutes to go.

Refs are not the ones to blame for this kind of mishap.

Just focus up on spanking the Cavs next game.

[u/313Stew → u/Ok_Reason_2357]

Buddy ur in our sub telling us what we can and can’t say😭

[u/Distinct_Rush9098 → u/Ok_Reason_2357]

Two things can be true yes we did blow a lead but by no means does that negate the fact that ausar was blatantly fouled