The Magic hosted the Thunder tonight at the Kia Center in Orlando, in possibly their final meeting of the season (unless they meet in the NBA Finals). During the second quarter of the game, with a little over four minutes left in the game, we witnessed a bizarre incident involving Alex Caruso of the Thunder.
The 32-year-old Thunder guard lost his shoe while on transition defense during the play. He picked it up and continued playing. Caruso managed to swat a layup attempt from the Magic’s Tristan da Silva with the same shoe and was called for a foul.
Alex Caruso went for the shoe block pic.twitter.com/0vtZKJqVJj
— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) March 18, 2026
Caruso felt a shooting foul was warranted, but the officials upgraded it to a goaltend and assessed a technical foul to Caruso for using an illegal object to block a shot. But several fans did not see that part of the clip and went berserk on social media over what they had just seen.
“How is this legal? That’s cheating.”
“There’s no way they allowed that.”
“Thunder always finds new ways to cheat.”
“Every year, I see something in basketball I have never seen before. Never fails.”
While some fans were shocked at what they had seen, some fans also praised the Thunder’s defense facetiously.
“Even his shoe plays elite defense.”
“No wonder they’re the No.1 defense in the league.”
They’ve witnessed Mike Miller make a three-point shot without a shoe and several other instances of players losing their sneakers during a game. But I cannot recall a single incident where the missing shoe was used to try to block a shot.
It was hilarious to see Caruso complaining about the decision to the official, as he should know that using any additional object to extend your reach when a player is trying to make a field goal comes under the umbrella of unsportsmanlike conduct, which is detrimental to keeping the competitive integrity of the game.
Section 5 of Rule No. 12 of the NBA Rulebook allows an official to have blanket powers to assess a technical foul in such a situation. The defending champions have been under the league’s scrutiny for their questionable defensive tactics throughout the season. But this is something bizarre, and unless I’m wrong, something we’ve never seen before.
The Thunder ended up winning the game 113-108 in a nail-biting game down the stretch as the Magic tried to rally back from what was once an 18-point lead for Oklahoma.
They extended their winning streak to nine games, improved to 54-15 for the season, and are now headed to Brooklyn to face the Nets tomorrow night (Wednesday, March 18).
Meanwhile, the Magic fell to 38-30 and are now sixth in the East with 14 games left. They are now headed to Charlotte to face the Hornets on the road on Thursday, March 19.
