Reggie Miller Hated That Anthony Edwards Got T’d Up For Staring Down Reggie Jackson

Ever since around the All-Star break, the officiating in the league shifted towards letting more go and allowing defenses to play with more physicality. The result was fewer foul calls and lower scoring games, and that has carried over through the first round of the playoffs.

While there’s been some frustration from players about not getting calls they once got, it’s made games far more enjoyable to watch from a game flow perspective. The increased physicality also raises the intensity, which is what playoff basketball is all about, and one would think the willingness to swallow the whistle would extend to players showing their emotion in playoff games.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case in Game 1 of the Western Conference semis between the Nuggets and Timberwolves, as Anthony Edwards got hit with a technical from Courtney Kirkland for staring down Reggie Jackson after blowing by him for a bucket on the baseline. Reggie Miller, who knows a thing or two about taunting, was on the call and could not believe what he was seeing from Kirkland.

Reggie said what everyone at home was thinking, as there was not a single non-Nuggets fan that would side with that call. Edwards himself was in sheer disbelief at the whistle on the court, because he hadn’t even jawed at Jackson and probably tried to restrain himself by simply giving him a stare and still got slapped with a T. Hopefully the league will rescind this one upon review tomorrow, but that won’t take that point off the board for Denver in a tight opener to this series.