The Denver Nuggets playing the Golden State Warriors is turning into quite the entertaining series, quite as predicted, although not just for pure basketball reasons. The physicality and dirtiness of the series has probably been the most notable aspect of it, and after Mark Jackson complained about Stephen Curry being handled roughly by Nuggets players, George Karl does his own retaliation by calling Festus Ezeli an asshole.

Jackson said that his team are physical, aggressive, and clean. The Nuggets? Dirty, according to the Warriors head coach. It’s never a black and white, one is lying, one is saying the truth thing. The Nuggets were overwhelmed by the Warriors aggression in the series so far, until Game 5 at least, when they finally bit back.

The Warriors are tougher than what the franchise is usually taken for this season, thanks to Jackson changing the attitude and the state of mind for certain players, basing on strong defense, or an attempt to execute one. Playing dirty is just part of that mentality change. What Jackson and Karl are doing is simply a battle of perceptions and an attempt to influence officials by making them pay attention to certain things, nothing more.