Suns' Frank Vogel calls out Thunder's Lu Dort for 'ridiculous' flopping. NBA disagrees.

Lu Dort is a fan favorite for the OKC Thunder.

The 6-foot-4 guard often defends the opposing teams' best player even if he's at a height disadvantage. He's also shooting a career-high 39.9% from behind the arc this season.

But one person who isn't a fan of Dort is Phoenix head coach Frank Vogel. After his team suffered a 128-103 road loss to OKC on Friday, Vogel expressed his frustration with Dort during a Saturday media availability.

"The league has got to look at all the flopping that Lu Dort does," Vogel said. "It's ridiculous how he gets calls. If they're going to get calls like that, then they're going to have an advantage. You can't just fall down every time there's contact and get a whistle. I hope the league looks at that."

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The NBA did exactly that, but it didn't side with Vogel.

The NBA rescinded a flopping technical that was assessed to Dort during the second quarter of OKC's win over Phoenix. In the three instances Dort has received said technical this season, two of the calls have been overturned upon review by the league office.

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault reacted to Vogel's comments in his pregame media availability Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.

“I'm not going to get into the comments…," Daigneault said. "What I will say is, I've coached Lu for five years, and he's as high integrity of a players I've coached. Plain and simple. Plays the game hard, plays it the right way, not a dirty player. He is an irritant, but he's an irritant within the rules of the game.”

Armed with stats, Daigneault continued his defense of Dort.

“I don't think it's overly relevant that it was put out there, but what would make it relevant is if the way the game is called changes because it's out there," Daigneault said. "Lu’s drawn 135 illegal screens in the last two years. It's 40 better than the next guy. … If that trend were to change, if it no longer was being called, then I would sit there and say, ‘OK, are we allowed to negotiate for calls through the media?’ That would be a slippery slope.”

OKC didn't need any advantages to defeat Phoenix on Friday either way. The Thunder completed a three-game sweep of the regular-season series in blowout fashion despite the absence of star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was out with a quad injury.

OKC (51-22) is now looking to secure its first playoff berth since the 2019-20 campaign on Sunday with either a road win over New York or a Sacramento loss to Utah.

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