Should it be a flagrant foul?

[Fan from VT]

Hard to tell, honestly. I see 3 possible points of contact on the play: 1st is the right hand trying to push perk out of bounds; this happens throughout the play. On the one hand, it may be made worse by Perk falling backwards himself; on the other, he clearly extends his arm all the way. 2nd is Gasol swiping Perks' wrist as Perk is passing the ball. 3rd is that same hand on the follow through gets an extra push in at Perk's face.

So honestly, I'm not surprised it wasn't a flagrant, but on the other hand, it was not a basketball play, especially when you combine the straight-arm push out of bounds with the right hand with the extra left-hand swipe at Perk's face, which to me was clearly antagonistic. Considering that Perk's incidental elbow stood as a technical and Pierce's extracurricular shove on Redick was upgraded to a flagrant 1, and that that is exactly the type of extraneous foul that can lead to ugly retaliation, I wouldn't be surprised to see it raised to a flagrant 1.

[Thruthelookingglass]

Perk was already off-balance when contact was made, so I'd say no.  There was nothing above-and-beyond about that play.

Agreed. 

[Mr October]

yeah not a flagrant.

However, If I'm an official, i'd look into the possibility of the Lakers baiting Perkins.

[guava_wrench]

clearly gasol was trying to bait perk into getting that tech...but if it had been reversed, perk would have been hit with a flag foul..the refs tend to protect gasol in this series. he gets a lot of calls and doesn't get called for too much so far

I don't think he was trying to bait him, I think he was just trying to make sure the foul got called, so they could send Perk to the line, instead of a better shooter. 

Yeah. You have to foul hard at that point in the game to make sure that the refs make the call.

[Meadowlark_Scal]

It was a bit more than a regular foul.....Gasol gets away with more than almost anyone, he is untouchable when he posts up..I think he ended with what, 2 fouls on him...he needs a BBD body slam....!

[connerhenry43]

should it be? No
Has less than that been called a flagrant? yes
if the roles were reversed, would it be a flagrant? no question about it, yes.
are the lakers trying to bait him? yes
did i love what pierce yelled to the crowd as he picked up perk? yes

[nickagneta]

What it was was bait to cause a double technical but it wasn't a flagrant foul.

[twinbree]

No. Perk was already falling out of bounds so it looked a bit worse than it was. I doubt Gasol wants any part of Perk. If their plan is to bait Perk into getting another T they definitely won't use him for the job.

[celticinorlando]

What it was was bait to cause a double technical but it wasn't a flagrant foul.

agree 100 percent