Last night as indication that it is possible to get calls during crunch time

One of the questions against the Moneyball philosophy of playing to get fouled, especially during the KMart era, is whether or not such a thing matters during crunch time. Because traditional thinking is that refs like to swallow the whistle during that time. And while it was just a regular season game, last night seem to give an indication that they do... provided you have the right attitude and personnel.

On the final 12 plays the Rockets ran(excluding the final possession where the Lakers fouled immediately), the Rockets had 6 plays that resulted in FTs. That's 50% of their possessions. While this was a home game, keep in mind that we were playing against the Lakers, Dwight Howard, Artest, and Kobe. Entities that usually get preferential treatment from refs, especially Artest and Howard on D.

Those 6 plays

1. Harden transition after Howard FT miss and got fouled
2. Harden drives, passes to Smith who was fouled
3. Harden got fouled
4. Patterson pass to Smith for a layup And1
5. Harden got fouled
6. Harden pass to Smith who was fouled

I don't think I've ever seen the Rockets get to the line so much in a close game, against a popular opponent. But they were aggressive, attacked the basket. As a result, it seemed like the refs were forced make those calls because they look like obvious fouls. And by that, I mean as a TV viewer you watch and instantly react as if they're fouled, even if you don't have good vantage point or could see the speed at which the play occurred. Refs are people trained to make snap judgements. And if you run a sequence of play that "should" result in a foul, refs will call that foul. Because they're conditioned to do so.

And certainly much credit to Harden, who unlike Martin, is capable of looking like he gets hard fouled on every drive to the basket.