NBA refs called 33 fouls in in the first quarter of Grizzlies-Timberwolves and fans were not happy

Let the players play!

Raise your hand if you tuned into these NBA playoffs hoping for an epic battle of the referees.

No? Well, that’s the way it’s going in the Memphis-Minnesota series.

To put it simply, the refs are stealing the show. The first quarter of Tuesday’s Game 2 took north of 40 minutes to complete thanks to the guys wearing stripes’ insistence on blowing their whistles. In totality, 20 fouls were called and a staggering 33 free throws were attempted through the first 12 minutes of play. Flargrants, technicals, charges, blocking fouls — you name it, it was called.

And that opening quarter of Game 2 wasn’t a first. The first frame of Game 1 was quite similar — 18 fouls and 19 free throws combined between the two teams.

What’s the deal? Are the referees going to start to relax with all the foul calls as we move forward with the series? We’ll have to wait and see.

But needless to say, NBA Twitter is all over the officials for their performances thus far.

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