Also what is the definition of a Flagrant Foul anymore. Everytime someone fouls Dwight, they are not going for the ball. If he was a guard or if he was fouling them it would be a Flagrant every time. It is a joke. The writing is on the wall. Dwight Howard will never win a championship because the officials will not let him. I have never seen a superstar get the treatment he does. I guess this is what happens when you leave the beloved LA.
If you're not gonna give Harden those 50/50 calls then fine. But don't turn around and give Damian Lillard free throws when nobody touches him. That's when I start questioning if the refs have alternative motives. That Dwight flagarant was also bs
Harden had 20 FTS. There were times when he would jump into the defenders and get calls. The homerism is pretty ridiculous. Do you guys want 60fts a game?
Howard will always get screwed by refs. It's the drawback to being so strong. Refs will always allow smaller centers to do anything they can to keep him off the block, but the moment Howard muscles them out it's a foul because of his size. I will say that your announcers are pretty quick to complain about any nearly borderline foul.
Agree 100% that lots of blown calls last night that killed our momentum. Way to come back. I'm a homer but I try to view it through non-biased glasses. Think about how many opposing fans get so pissed when Harden initiates contact at the 3pt line the moment the defender extends his arm slightly. I'm glad he gets 3 at the line but the shooter is the one that initiated contact. He gets at least one of these a game. Bottom line is that we had 35 FT attempts last night compared to 29 for the Blazers. In the Boston game we had 23 vs the Celtics 17. In the Dallas game, we had 32 vs 21. I don't think we can get upset about officiating because we're the ones going to the line the most and Harden's FTs more than makes up for Howard's non-calls.
yup, agree 100%. the bad officiating goes both ways, to all teams. that's how ridiculous the nba officiating has been.
Harden initiates a lot of contact with defenders who are not set or who are not vertical. Granted, he flops, too, but he still likely is fouled more than most players in the act of shooting due to his aggression. Not a fan of 60 fts, but it is the defense's fault for not being able to play defense without fouling. I do wish flops were called techs.
It has nothing to do with the amount of Free Throws, but the way we get the free throws vs how our opponents get them. If Harden does not get touch fouls why are we always getting called for Touch fouls. Not sure what you have been watching this year. Harden has got called for multiple offensive fouls by jumping into players or who knows what.
It's about styles. We penetrate and draw fouls. Play in the paint where there is a lot of contact. Other teams just shoot jumpers and somehow the FT's are close. If i shoot wide open threes all game I don't expect to shoot FT's. The Rockets don't guard anyone half the game, and when they do it is a foul.
When you see a new thread in CF to b**** about the officiating, that means finally the Rockets are not losing by 20 each game. Rejoice.
As said already, we arent losing because of the refs, that not an excuse. But we are definitely being treated differently, majorly harden/howard. Harden isn't getting even half of the calls he got last season, and howard has gotten called for fouls just sitting there breathing.
Totally. Handing out sporadic $5K fines hasn't done jack to deter flopping - and why would it? To most of these guys, 5K is nothing, and even if it does cost you a few grand to ensure a win, I think most of these guys will gladly pay it. If the penalty is that a flop will cost you points - and potentially a win, I think that becomes a bit more of a deterrent. One thing that I don't hear much about is adding another ref to the crews. With as big and as fast as these guys play, I think having another set of eyes on the floor watching would only help catch some of the missed calls and provide another perspective for some of the bogus ones.
I can handle the Harden no-calls. But, the way Dwight is being called now is ridiculous, going back to last years playoffs. The threshold for a flagrant seems to have been lowered for him specifically. He had several over turned after the fact last season too. On the other hand, like Bill and Matt pointed out last night when you're sucking ass all those little things seemed to be magnified. Especially, in a game where they were trying to mount a comeback.
+1 , I agree with you , there is nothing to be done about officiating . Although I do feel what the OP is saying
I agree with this 100 percent but the way they call fouls on Dwight is just unbearable and hard to watch. That flagrant 1 was an absolute joke.
Some of the flagrants Dwight gets called for are shocking. Literally anyone else in the league making the exact same play it doesn't even get reviewed. We saw it last night when Corey Brewer got knocked to the ground with NO CALL, if Dwight knocked someone to the ground like that it'd be a flagrant, easy. Also, he's just like Yao in that all people have to do is fall down next to him and it's an automatic offensive foul. It's really frustrating, I know the officials can't be that dumb, they just don't like him for whatever reason.
No doubt some of the flagrant fouls Dwight received are BS, but if you will look at the whole game, the whole season or even the whole career of Dwight, he often will do some of the most stupidest move or fouls when fighting for positions or grabbing a rebound. He has the physical advantage, but more than often he likes to use his hand flailing around to gain that extra edge or trying to intimidate his opponents, that alone will give the other players perfect chance to flop. And because of this, a bad reputation / perception had been built, and Dwight needs to take a lot of responsibility from it.
It's not homerism. You're just following boxscore numbers without paying much attention to the game. Harden was trying any & everything to get those calls. Literally sacrificing his body just to get to the line. On the other end, Lillard (who's a jump shooter) is getting calls without being touched smh. We won't even bring up Dwight
