Flopping has become a hot topic of conversation through the first five games of the Warriors-Lakers playoff series.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr stoked the fire with his postgame comments from Game 4, when he said the Lakers were being rewarded for flopping with beneficial foul calls. Well, the Lakers responded on Wednesday as coach Darvin Ham and star LeBron James took issue with Kerr’s comments.
The back-and-forth continued Thursday, as Warriors forward JaMychal Green mocked James on his Instagram story.
For those not fluent in Gen Z/Millennial slang, here’s a brief explainer.
The kids call lying “capping” these days. So when JaMychal used a cap emoji and put it on LeBron’s head, we can imply that he is calling James a liar for his comments.
Here’s what James said after the game on Wednesday, for reference.
“I just know that our coaching staff and us players, we don't work on flopping," LeBron said. "That's not even a part of our game. Our game is to attack, attack the paint. We don't mind physical contact. We actually like the contact. We don't shy away from it.
"We're just not a team that goes out there looking for flopping opportunities. That's just not us. It's actually never been any team that I've played on in my 20 years where we've been a flopping team. It is what it is. They have their right to say what they want to say, but the game is always won between the four lines, and we've got to be better on Friday for sure."
Every series always has some extra curricular action, and it looks like free throws and flopping is where the Warriors-Lakers is focused. In their two losses, the Lakers hold a slim 32-31 advantage in free throw attempts. In their three wins, the Lakers have a huge 86-35 lead in the free throw column.
We’ll have to see how the refs dole out the whistles in Game 6 in Los Angeles, as the Lakers (3-2 series lead) have another chance to end the Warriors season.
