March 31 Ref Report is Out - No Ruling on the Harden no timeout

It's more of an unfortunate circumstance than irony.

The rockets screwed themselves last night, not the refs. Bad calls alone didn't carry that Raptor team.

 

Timeout granting is a common misconception in sports. In the vast majority of instances, a referree of a sport like basketball or baseball are trained to be look for the timeout call and be quick with the call. However, they can withhold the timeout within the rules.

With Harden last night, the ref in his judgement likely saw a tied up possession in progress so didn't call the timeout or was may have been partially obstructed from viewing Harden asking for time before the tied up possession occured.

In baseball, the umpire can ignore a timeout request from a batter if the pitcher is ready to throw or if someone on the basepaths appears to be about to slide off the bag.

The majority of the time, the refs normally grant the timeout making everyone believe that is the norm. It's also kind of like how judgement on "act of shooting" when fouled or charges being called when someone hits the deck (i.e. flops) has morphed over the years.

At the end of the day, I think the Rockets should have shifted Brewer or Ariza on to DeRozan at the end of the game and let their length make his step back jumper that more difficult. For that matter, if Harden hits his step back three over DeRozan, we might not even be worried about the timeout not being granted.

 

Enough of making excuses for the refs. I hate that mess. Yes the Rockets played bad but teams don't go out and play perfect.

It would be nice if the refs did their jobs so that this isn't even an issue.

 

Let us lose completely on our own then.

The refs aided the Raptors to a victory.

 

Either the refs do their job correctly or punish them if they don't. These pointless ref reports don't do anything but let people know the refs screwed up (spoiler alert: everybody already knows the refs screwed up the obvious calls in the first place).

 

In its current form, the whole ref report concept is a disaster for Silver and the NBA. What does it actually accomplish except irate fans that are even less trusting of league officials in crunchtime?

Exercise in futility

 

SMH. That's the life of a Houston Rockets fan.

 

Pretty much, it's annoying that some people when a bad call is made always bring up what the team could have done better. There is always something a team can do better. If the Rockets played a perfect game last night they win by 30. That goes for any team.

Also to add onto that, refs CAN decide games in any sport. Last night was a clear example of how they can in a basketball game.

If you're watching a soccer match and it's a 1-1 tie and in the 90th minute the official decides to give a team a penalty in the box that is unwarranted...that is flat out the official deciding the game. I'm sure one set of fans can point out "Oh if so and so didn't miss that chip shot at the goal..." or etc etc, no one plays a perfect game and in close games EVERY little thing counts for or against a team.

That's what happened last night. The refs made a horrible decision. Why?

Harden was being fouled in the first place.
Harden called timeout as is stated in the NBA report.

I really don't care about FTs missed or who was guarding Derozan or whatever. If Derozan doesn't have one of his 5 great games per season last night then the Rockets win too. It still does not excuse that the refs made crucial calls that went against the Rockets.

If they weren't so blatant, that would be fine. Last night the timeout was a very blatant non-call.

Yeah, I don't understand why they won't then suspend a ref for a game or whatever. I know some people will say "That's harsh, the refs don't make that much money." You're right, it is VERY harsh.

What is also harsh though is deciding a game where players put their bodies on the line. Harden throwing his body on the floor trying to gut out a W where his team obviously wasn't playing at it's best and the refs getting involved in what was a good game. That's harsh as well, because if it weren't for this game and the Memphis game the Rockets would be 2 games up on the Grizzlies WITH the tie break...

This game could decide 2nd seed, which could decide matching up with the Spurs or Mavs...and it could decide if Harden gets the MVP...so yeah, when refs make decisions like these they should be suspended for a regular season game or so.

These reports don't do anything to bring these games back for us.

 

The calls had nothing to do with him, he didn't put Ariza on DeRozan when it was obvious that Harden was struggling to stop him.

 

Can't remember a time where I've been more livid over an NBA game than when that Dwight/Freeland "foul" happened, and the ensuing apology made it so much worse.

This is the NBA. The top of the line. The league shouldn't settle for guys so incapable of doing their job in the most important of moments, because surely they can do better than that.

The fact that not even a slap on the wrist is made shows that Silver and the league office don't seriously care about improving the quality of the officiating.

 

My God, don't remind me of that....

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This is where Adam Silver needs to step in and start holding these refs accountable. I'm not sure if they are protected by another union not headed by Silver but this has to end somehow. Just insane how guys like Brothers, Dan and Joey Crawford, Mauer and the absoulte worst ref of all time Bennett Salvatore get away with so much.

 

If we were very bad at our jobs, we would no longer have those jobs. The total lack of accountability is beyond maddening because of numerous times this has cost us games this year. Top 5 off the top of my head (from this season): vs ATL, @ CHI, @ ATL, vs MEM, and @ TOR. And of course, no need to explain what happened in the PLAYOFFS from LAST SEASON. Then the league has the nerve to think there "ref reports" will make us feel any better. By acknowledging horrible mistakes that cost us games AND our season last year, I (along with many here) won't be shocked if they take another playoff series from us this year. If the other teams beat us fair-and-square, then of course, I'd shake their hand and say straight up they played better and deserved to win. But when so many games (especially over the last 2 years) have been taken from us, it's truly infuriating. And if these refs continuously screw up big games with seeding implications, they should be replaced by people competent to do the job correctly.

Sorry for the rant, but I had to get that one off my chest.

 

I'm surprised the NBA is admitting their mistakes. What do they have to gain? All this does is add to our frustration of the poor officiating. It's not like we can have a "Re-Do"

 

I always see this as a retort to some other bad thing done in a game. Oh we can't harp on refs, we didn't play a good game. If we did, we'd win. Well that's obvious...

...but I am not sure how poor officiating is somehow excused by some other deficit. We can even start a thread about how Rockets could have played better or adjusted better to Derozan, etc., but that's not this thread. This is the thread about refs doing a poor job officiating and the NBA report related to that.

So no, Rockets screwed themselves last night AND the refs screwed them; but the topic of this thread isn't that. It'd be like me saying, man if DHoward played last night, we could have won, regardless of otherwise poor Rockets play and bad reffing. Maybe, sure, but how is that on point?

 

Hopefully playoffs will be amazing in a good way.

 

Feigan says there were 2 admitted mistakes.

I only read one. That is a pretty big assumption to say a blank spot on the page is an admission of a mistake.

 

End of the day, it comes down to the people on the floor doing the jobs they're paid to do. This isn't an either/or proposition. The Rockets can make mistakes and the officials can, too.

At the end of the day, if you're a fan of the NBA product, you shouldn't sweep it under the rug when their paid employees fail at doing their basic tasks. DeRozan could've scored 100 like Wilt, and it still doesn't change the responsibilities of that official one iota.

 

FIFY...if it was a one-time mistake, sure, I'd call it human error. But when these same refs have been making this crucial mistakes for years and no accountability is taken, it's a much deeper problem that must be weeded out and fixed for the future of the game.

 

It's not a "blank spot". It says verbatim that the timeout was not granted and that the request came BEFORE the jump ball.

Harden (HOU) requests a timeout before the jump ball that is not granted.

There's no assumption whatsoever, unless you're trying to be obtuse. The mistake isn't "graded" because the NBA isn't in the business of trying to prove or disprove a negative in these reports. However, if the league approved of the call, all they had to do was say that the jump ball was the correct call.

The fact is, the NBA did not even grade the jump ball call and whether it was the correct or incorrect decision. Why? Because a timeout should have been granted beforehand, as they specifically point out, thus nullifying the entire sequence.

Anyone who thinks there was "no ruling" is either being dense or intentionally dishonest for the sake of arguing. The league makes it very apparent that Harden should have been granted a timeout.