If we can learn from their friends in the WWE, they can 'accidentally' run in to them. It's all scripted anyway.
The team just needs to treat Golden State as a punching bag. You know how you'll get so mad about something or someone that you want to punch a hole in the wall and/or tell off the person for hours and then go complain to everyone you know? That's when you need a punching bag where you just go and beat the **** out of it until you can't physically throw another punch. That's what the Rockets need to do. Don't say a word to any ref tonight regardless of circumstance. Don't get T-ed up. Just direct it all into the Warriors. Go get a record number of rebounds. Don't give them any air to breathe on defense. Dunk the ball hard over these guys, but don't celebrate like you did anything special. Just do it again the next time. If you foul out, so be it. Make every foul worth it as if you doing it to Scott Foster or Steve Kerr themselves.
Stopped reading after page two, too much hate, so apologies if this has been posted. Apparently nobody likes Foster. Posted by u/rayfosse 2 years ago The Warriors have a Scott Foster problem Everyone on r/nba is now convinced that the league is rigged in favor of the Warriors. From my perspective (and many Warriors fans), though, it feels like if anything the Warriors are disadvantaged by calls more often than not. But by and large I haven’t had problems with how the games are officiated, with one exception. Scott Foster. It always feels like we’re up against more than just the other team when he’s on the court. Now, he’s widely regarded as one of the worst refs in the league, so it’s possible that he gives terrible calls both ways and as a Warriors fan I just notice the ones that disadvantage us. To test this, I looked at all the games he’s officiated for us in the playoffs over the last few years. Here are the results: Playoff games over the last two seasons: 34 Playoff games with Scott Foster: 8 Record without Scott Foster: 21-5 Record with Scott Foster: 4-4 Point differential without Scott Foster: +9.5 Point differential with Scott Foster: +2 Game logs with Scott Foster: W 123-119 OT, game 3 NOP (Curry hits the clutch buzzer beater to go to OT, but doesn’t get the call for the foul on the shot.) L 90-97, game 2 MEM W 115-80, game 3 HOU L 93-95 OT, game 2 CLE W 105-97, game 6 CLE L 96-97, game 3 HOU W 132-125 OT, game 4 POR (Shaun Livingston gets kicked out of a game for the first time in his career with two incredibly quick technicals by Foster.) L 105-133, game 3 OKC In the last two playoffs, when the Warriors have been the best team in the league, 4 of their 9 losses have come in Scott Foster games. They have won 81% of the games he is not officiating, but only 50% of the games he does. 2 of the 4 games we won with him went to overtime, and are games we would have lost if it wasn’t for heroic performances by Curry (his buzzer beater against the Pelicans last year, and his 17 point overtime flurry this year against Portland). Further, the Warriors’ point differential is 7.5 higher when he is not on the court. Based on all numbers, the Warriors perform significantly worse in games refereed by Foster. There is a reason it was tweeted out before game 3 that he’s doing the game, and the Warriors fanbase’s hearts collectively sunk as we knew we were up against more than just the Thunder. That game, with the two quick phantom calls on Bogut, the overturned shot clock violation, and the at-one-point 18-2 FTA disparity, convinced me that Foster is out to get the Warriors. He’s been linked to gambling rings and Tim Donaghy, and it’s possible that he fixes the games knowing that without him on the court the odds of the Warriors winning is sky high, but with him he can bring it down to a coin flip. I don’t trust him at all, and after looking at the raw numbers, I think there is reason for the Warriors to request he never be involved in our playoff games. The Warriors play better without Curry than they do with Foster, which is an absurd stat that everyone should find troubling.
The players also have a union and Chris Paul is its president. After this is all over and the dust settles, if we get another “the fix is in” from the NBA based on what happens not just in game 2, but in every game in this series, the union can exert their own power, if they chose to do so. The deck has been very deliberately stacked against the Rockets by Silver and his underlings. The deck has also been stacked against other teams over time, teams that may not be happy with the quality of the officiating they’ve received in the past, but do not have the analytical ability of the cutting edge Rockets. In my opinion. It’s an attempt to intimidate our team and on multiple levels. Particularly Harden and Paul, in the hope that they will let their emotions get the better of them when the inevitable calls go against both, and against other key members of our rotation over the course of the series, and not necessarily during tonight’s game, or by the same officiating teams later. Here are a few of those “multiple levels,” from where I sit. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if Foster and his crew go out of their way to appear fair and balanced tonight. This promotes the meme that all the controversy, the blatantly ignored and very dangerous fouls against both Harden and Paul on step back 3’s in game 1, was “much ado about nothing,” as were other questionable calls during the game. Some went against Oakland, to be fair, which begs the question, why were they officiating the most anticipated series in the playoffs if they were “simply” incompetent? A series looked forward by more that just the fans of Houston and the Bay Area. As for the meme I mentioned, and mentioned by others elsewhere, this is setting up the “dagger” by Foster or another similar officiating crew later. Of course, the league could also go a different route in a more “subtle” way by calling egregious fouls on other plays that aren’t so obvious. In my opinion. I saw the list by @J.R. of the results of the playoff games refereed by Foster. For the last 6 games the past 2 seasons, since 2017 with Harden, and the last 8 playoff games since 2014 with Chris Paul. Every single game refereed by Foster, 14 games in total, were losses, including game 1 and game 7 last year in the WC Finals. Game 1 was when Oakland “stole” the first game on our home court, insuring a split, and game 7, the “dagger” ending the series. The league, from Silver on down, couldn’t be more blatant in sending a **** you to Harden and Paul, MDA, Morey, the Rockets organization, and the City of Houston. We have made Silver and his people unhappy, and apparently for a long time. They are likely more unhappy now than they have ever been. In my opinion. It also sends a message, which they hope will have no advertised repercussions, on the other teams angered by past poorly officiated games. Teams like Dallas, for instance, who has a billionaire owner that’s no stranger to high tech and could do what the Rockets organization has done with the information provided to each team on the results of the officiating of every game, including the playoffs, games just involving their own team and not others. In my opinion. It tells the most veteran officials, the worst group officiating the rule changes over the last few years, going by the information provided by the league to each team, that the league “has their back.” The reason for that should be obvious. There will be no significant repercussions following the revelations about their officiating that have come out over the last few days, and might be revealed over the course of this series, and other series this year. In my opinion. I could go on, and I’m sure I’m repeating things already posted, not having read past a bit of page 2 before feeling compelled to post something. My apologies for that. As for what the league actually does tonight or during other games, nothing they say afterwards will change the outcome. It’s just noise. What a great way to start the day. We have yet to hear a peep from our owner. Perhaps I missed it.
Chris Paul, James Harden need to keep quiet, don't give any referees the evil look, or talk to anybody. If the game is a Rockets getting blownout in the 3rd qtr, bench the starters. For once Mike needs to pull every starter. Let the bench have ESPN, TNT ratings go even more down.
The best message you can send to an opponent and the league (if that's what you're doing) is to win a game while also being officiated poorly. That's what the Rockets players and coaches should focus on tonight -- no complaining even on bad calls -- just go out and there and play ball and win.
Why does the NBA do this to us? Do they deliberately want to see Golden a state three peat? Like come on mayn, this makes me so angry. The best thing we can do is win the game to shove it back into the NBA administrators faces.
A refesher from our last game with Foster... _______ According to ESPN Stats & Information, Foster issued 18 fouls (personal or technical) in the Feb. 21 game -- 12 against the Rockets and six against the Lakers. Seven of the fouls against the Rockets, who blew a 19-point lead in the second half, occurred in the fourth quarter. Houston did not attempt a free throw in the final 20 minutes of the game, compared to 17 free throws for the Lakers during that span.
Yup just tweeted that I remember game 7 - 3 quick fouls on Klay in the first quarter and Klay ends the game with 4 fouls total. Everyone starts the "Rockets are getting the calls now!" and then the refs go full on GS only mode.
You could have fooled me during the Western Conference Finals last year. Thanks for posting, by the way. I don’t mind Intelligent posts by fans of another team. Be careful, though. ;-)
Well, that sucked, all the positive discussions about others outside Rockets/Rockets fans mentioning this. NBA sucks, so rigged