Tonight’s Must-Watch Games

The Opening Tip

• The refs have left two NBA teams dumbfounded in two nights

• Triple-doubles are down across the league 

• Kawhi Leonard just cashed in with the Clippers

1. The refs broke the Raptors last night

After botching Monday’s Celtics-Pacers game (see: Daily GIF section), the refs reached deeper into their bags last night in the fourth quarter of Lakers-Raptors.

Highlights: 

• The Lakers finished with 23 free-throws in the fourth quarter to the Raptors’ 2, though some came on intentional fouls at the end

• Remember when they were cracking down on flopping? This was called an offensive foul on RJ Barrett on a game-tying 3. 

• The old see if he makes it, then blow the whistle technique. 

• Was this play by Immanuel Quickley, called a flagrant foul, really ‘unnecessary and excessive contact’?

The end result: A one-point win by the Lakers and a mental breakdown by Raptors coach Darko Rajaković, who …. just watch the clip.

2. Daily GIF: Gaslighting 101

Wild scenes from the end of Celtics-Pacers on Monday: 

• The play above was initially called a foul, which makes sense. The play was challenged and overturned, which doesn’t make sense. 

• Immediately after, Kristaps Porzingis was called for a shooting foul on Bennedict Mathurin, which the NBA said in its L2M report should not have been called. 

In that same L2M, the league insisted the decision to reverse the call on Brown was correct, which begs the question: Should defenders just start raking offensive players across the head?

3. Trivia

4. Grip Graph: Triple-doubles are down

The downturn in triple-doubles, or the de-Westbrook-ification of the NBA, is in full motion. We’re on-pace for 93 total triple-doubles this season, which would be the lowest output since the 2015-16 season. 

Quick hits

• Erik Spoelstra just signed the largest lump-sum contract by an NBA head coach. 

• Ben Simmons update: Ben Simmons has not played since Nov. 6. 

• There’s a game tonight between two teams with a combined record of 8-64. 

• The Knicks are 5-0 since acquiring OG Anuboby, and are now the fourth seed. 

• Dennis Schroder says his agent convinced him to turn down LAL’s $84M offer. 

• Cool but meaningless: 1 through 11 in the West are ordered perfectly in the loss column.

Reads & Pods

• The Grizzlies’ nightmare situation just got worse [The Ringer]

• Nikola Jokic: ‘I’m looking forward to the season ending’ [The Onion]

That's the buzzer.
Thanks for reading the 346th edition of The Grip.