Thanks for the personal attacks when several other posters have said the same thing. Anyone who is not a BIASED LAKERS FAN (which includes all Lakers fans) would agree that the Lakers get preferential treatment from the refs. Tim Donaghy wrote a book admitting the refs fixed games in the Lakers favor. Ex: 2002 Kings/Lakers Game 6 , Game 7 2010 NBA Finals.
Lakers get the biggest preferential treatment in the league. The Thunder get the 2nd most. Its disgusting and boring watching those two teams play due to the calls they get in their favor.
FT attempts for the entire Season: Lakers 27.5 (1st in the league ) Lakers' opponents 20.0 (3rd fewest in the league) That's +7.5 Differential (Highest FT Differential in the NBA) Numbers Don't Lie.
Hack a Howard definitely comes into the equation. Also, just want to point out that so far into the season, Durant, LBJ, and Wade has had significantly more FTA than Kobe (more than 50 I believe). Alot of it depends on the way the team plays. For sure the Lakers are one of the cash cows of the NBA, but that fact alone doesn't mean who ever wears purple and gold gets automatic fellatio from the refs.
I don't know where you're getting your stats from, but LBJ and Wade have not shot "significantly more" FTAs than Kobe-- in fact, they've shot less, and Wade isn't even close. This is of course ludicrous when you compare how Wade and LeBron play in the paint vs. Kobe who is mostly a jumpshooter at this point in his career. Kobe most certainly gets preferential treatment in this league but I don't know if that's so much because he's a Laker as he is just one of their biggest draws.
The league is doing everything they can to make sure Dwight stays in LA. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the Lakers got this kind of preferential treatment against the Spurs in the 1st round.
oh, wow, then let's hope the lakers can get the championship with the help of the league, if not, you should punch yourself. haters can always find or create execuses to attack the team that they hate.
Hmm I misread then. So you're are right about that. I was right about KD though, 619 FTA vs 495 for Kobe. Preferential treatment means getting phantom fouls, and I just don't see Kobe getting those.
the pacers lost their heart at the sight of Dwight and didn't attack the rim enough, sadly. A few touch fouls at the start were dubious and costly (putting Hibbert into early foul trouble and killing the Pacers defense) but overall, the lack of free throws was the Pacers own fault.
Also, being a jumpshooter doesn't mean you can't get fouled. A smart player knows how to draw fouls (e.g the swing through before the L banned it for no good reason). In addition, aggressive defenders will not respect the shooter's space, and often walk under him. This is dangerous and should be called ten times out of ten. Defenders know better than to challenge agressively at the rim because fouls tend to be called there, while the same defenders know that they can get away with more in other situations. So you can't really say that an all around player like Kobe doesn't deserve to get the free throws that he does. In fact he often gets killed w/o any calls, for example in OKC last year where he got squeeshed in mid air and the ref just stood there.
Even though Dwight is sorta kinda making his free throws more, I still feel Hack-A-Howard is a legitimate strategy. It will make the game out of flux, and we can control the tempo better than many teams, even including the Lakers.
That's not really smart strategy if he's hitting his free throws. If he hits his free throws then you're letting the Lakers get back and set up in their half court defense, which is terrible, but much better than their transition defense. Rockets are better off trying to out run them instead of trying to get into a half court set.
Kobe and Gasol will be back on Fri. Should be interesting. Think they're gonna keep playing well, or will the recent chemistry get knocked out of whack again by Gasol coming back?
Seems like they've turned the corner for the most part. I bet the keep it going, but it'll take a little bit to get it all going smoothly again.
