Mason Plumlee’s elbow on Jared McCain fuels Game 5 fallout
mason plumlee put Jared McCain on the floor late in Game 5 after giving him an elbow in the back shortly after entering the game. The foul came in the middle of a sequence that pushed the night’s physical play into the spotlight and left Oklahoma City looking for a response.
Plumlee and McCain
Plumlee was one of two Spurs players cited for hard fouls late in Game 5 against McCain. His hit sent McCain tumbling, and it added to a night that already had turned testy for San Antonio.
McCain later had another star turn against San Antonio on Tuesday night, but the hard contact changed the focus. Instead of staying on his scoring, the game shifted toward how the Spurs were handling him when he attacked the lane and when he caught the ball late in the contest.
Biyombo’s face shot
Bismarck Biyombo added the other flash point when he hit McCain in the face on a drive later in Game 5. At the free-throw line, McCain asked, “[w]hy’d you do that man,” and Biyombo answered, “I got another one for you too.”
That exchange gave the sequence its sharpest edge. It also made the foul sequence bigger than one play, because the contact came with words attached and with Victor Wembanyama shown whispering to each of the players as he left the game.
Thunder response
The clip circulated, and the read from it is blunt: Oklahoma City almost has to retaliate after what happened. Isaiah Hartenstein is the logical player to answer, but the Thunder cannot afford to lose him, and Jaylin Williams is another option if they want to send a message without taking the same risk.
That choice is made harder by Oklahoma City’s lack of a powerful big man beyond Hartenstein, especially with Thomas Sorber injured. San Antonio’s physical approach has already put the Thunder into a spot where any response has to be measured, because the lineup does not have much size to spare.
The foul sequence left Game 5 with more than a scoreline attached to it. Plumlee’s elbow, Biyombo’s shot to the face, and Wembanyama’s whispers turned one late stretch into a series issue, and Oklahoma City now has to decide whether it answers with a matchup move or a hard foul of its own.
