Kyrie Irving is not happy about the benefit from the officials Giannis Antetokounmpo received during the Milwaukee Bucks’ 123-116 Game 3 win at Boston in their Eastern Conference semifinals on Friday.
The Bucks took 36 free throws in the game and pulled out a win despite being down at the half and most of the third quarter. Antetokounmpo in particular got lots of calls and attempted a season-high 22 free throws as he scored a game-high 32 points.
After the game, Irving complained that the calls were “getting ridiculous” and slowing down the game too much.
“It’s getting ridiculous. It’s slowing the fu*king game down.” – Kyrie Irving on Giannis’ 22 free-throw attempts
— Clevis Murray (@ClevisMurray) May 4, 2019
Despite the complaints, the foul calls in the game were nearly even. Boston was called for 27 fouls and Milwaukee 26. And even though the Bucks got to the line 36 times, Boston took 32 free throws.
There were a lot of foul calls when Giannis had the ball, but they were legit. Irving is probably just bitter about how much Giannis outplayed him:
Giannis saw Kyrie covering him….BBQ chicken all day pic.twitter.com/njZEWu6G7S
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) May 4, 2019
Kyrie went for the layup and Giannis said no pic.twitter.com/xMalNIcVlj
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) May 4, 2019
Irving does have a gripe about not getting a foul call on this drive to the basket though:
Kyrie bamboozles Giannis but doesn't get the call pic.twitter.com/WkPl89R3Ax
— The Render (@TheRenderNBA) May 4, 2019
Though Irving was complaining about the calls, Brad Stevens did not. The Celtics coach is focusing on Game 4, where Boston might get some better treatment on calls after complaining. Giannis took some lumps in the game, so Irving should take his.
