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For the last 48 hours, on local and national TV, pundits — for the most part — have been crying foul on Pau Gasol, whose putback in the waning seconds of the Western Conference seminfinals’ Game 5 sealed the win for Los Angeles.

The only notable exceptions to this are Henry Abbott of TrueHoop and color commentator Doug Collins of TNT, who got the call right at the time.

Two video clips follow. A few notable details about them:

1. While Pau’s forearm is positioned on Okur’s back, you never see Pau push forward with it. The second the ball comes off the rim, Pau’s arms go straight up for the ball. There is no push.

2. Okur’s reaction is totally unnatural and histrionic — he falls forward like he was pushed violently, and throws both his arms out wildly for no apparent reason.

3. After Pau scores, Okur does not show any of the expected signs of a person who had been fouled hard. (This is visible in the second video below.) He doesn’t implore the referees for missing the call. He simply glances around, realizes that his flop didn’t work, and accepts that it didn’t. One other notable fact: Doug Collins pointed on several times during the broadcast that Okur was battling some Achilles issues, so it makes sense that he would flop in this situation, particularly when he was under the basket and out of position to get the rebound.

David Neiman is a freelance sportswriter who has worked for the Washington Post, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, Lakers Magazine, and other award-winning publications. He is also the president of Athlete Interactive, a web development company for professional athletes

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