Szczesny is one of those enigmatic sorts of players who can make a phenomenal play one moment and immediately follow it up with the stupidest fucking mistake in human history.

No. He really, really wasn’t. He stood and straightened up to wait for the cross and what could have been an easy goal. If Benatia doesn’t run into his back, that’s a tap-in.

If there was light contact and a player on the ground at the other end: I think it would be called the same. Plays like that don’t really favor Spanish teams over Italian ones. Diving isn’t exactly a rare occurrence in Italy either.

Not playing defense is not the same as playing so-so defense. The problem for LeBron was that none of his teammates were playing defense either.

Oh, thanks. I thought this was his first year as a starter.

Ambivalent leg lines at the labia smelling event sounds like a terrifyingly interesting local news headline. Tonight at 10pm!

He wasn’t just “in a group of players surrounding Michael Oliver”. He was front and center aggressively confronting Oliver and bumping into him whenever Oliver moved away ( the only thing he can do, short of issuing cards ). We also don’t know what it is that Buffon said and his words alone may have justified a…

The original comment says that Westbrook’s former teammates all improved without him, suggesting causality. This doesn’t even apply to Durant and Ibaka, who are basically the same as they were, so just Harden and Oladipo, who were bench players. They improved for reasons that have nothing to do with Westbrook. As…

You can argue the swinging leg was an attempt to clear the ball. The push in the back is far harder to explain away.

...under the circumstances like this the ref needs to have composure.

The SBNation article calls it “controversial” and “very, very soft”, but conveniently doesn’t include the clip of the penalty decision.

The Harry Kane thing wasn’t bad either. Billy’s having a day.

No matter the league, players don’t get away with being physical with the ref. Why should Buffon?

Two hands to the back is not a challenge for the ball. It’s a penalty.

You can’t be chasing the ref around, bumping into him and screaming in his face. Buffon lost his head and it’s unfortunate, but he earned the red.

Harden has improved his defensive commitment massively this season and is a mediocre-to-average defender now. All of his high-usage teammates, save Anderson, are excellent defenders, so that’s all he needs to be.

Even more so because Harden was the 6th man in OKC. If he didn’t improve as a starter ( and offensive focal point ) it would have been shocking.

No. Fultz’s shot is both goofy and bad, that’s a bit harder to reconcile.

He’s a year younger than me, but looks ten years older. It’s weird.

How the league could have made any definitive determination to overturn this is very questionable. If their decision is based largely on the testimony of Kane, as their comment indicates, that’s absolutely bizarre. He, more so than anyone else, is biased towards a positive outcome to the review and the video evidence…