It was blatantly obvious tonight. Me and a friend watched the game tonight (Warriors fan) and we were amazed at how many fouls the refs were blowing against Golden State. 50 free throws!? That's ridiculous. After the Warriors were robbed, I decided to do some research. I wanted to see how many more Free Throws the Lakers were getting in their last 20 games compared to their opponent. Game 1: (tonight) Lakers - 50, Opponent, 16 Game 2: Lakers - 24, Opponent - 20 Game 3: Lakers - 22, Opponent - 18 Game 4: Lakers - 30, Opponent - 21 Game 5: Lakers - 18, Opponent - 7 Game 6: Lakers - 33, Opponent - 12 Game 7: Lakers - 26, Opponent - 16 Game 8: Lakers - 39, Opponent - 22 Game 9: Lakers - 38, Opponent - 30 Game 10: Lakers - 36, Opponent - 19 Game 11: Lakers - 17, Opponent - 16 Game 12: Lakers - 16, Opponent -15 Game 13: Lakers - 29, Opponent - 8 Game 14: Lakers - 30, Opponent - 9 Game 15: Lakers - 16, Opponent - 21 (Hawks game) Game 16: Lakers - 47, Opponent - 17 Game 17: Lakers - 14, Opponent - 12 Game 18: Lakers - 36, Opponent - 16 Game 19: Lakers - 39, Opponent - 20 Game 20: Lakers - 40, Opponent - 24 _______________________________________________ Averaged out: Lakers - 29.5 FTPG Opponent - 16.95 FTPG I've watched many Laker games this year, especially in this recent stretch of games. Kobe is getting calls even if no one touches him and doesn't get called for fouls on the other end. It's obvious and very frustrating that referees are being biased against a certain team. There's no place for this in professional sports.
If you want to see something even more interesting, take a look at the Utah Jazz (the team the Lakers have to beat out) totals over the same period. Keep in mind this is a team that historically is at the top of FTAs.
While tonight is certainly outrageous, keep in mind teams do hack-a-dwight a lot which helps explain some of the other games. It is suspicious, though
Not saying there's nothing to this, but you have to take into account that teams intentionally foul Howard quite a bit.
Was going to post the same thing, though I didn't see tonight's game so I don't know how much it impacted such a huge discrepancy tonight. But definitely makes a difference when teams are intentionally putting Dwight on the line.
Tonight, the only intentional foul on Howard was his last two FTAs. He did draw many legitimate fouls. Throughout the season, teams don't actually use Hack-a-Shaq that much. Only Jackson and Pop did it excessively (but Jackson didn't this game). The problem isn't this though-- it's that the fouls weren't being called equally both ways. For examples, Ezeli (?) fouled out on a pretty ticky-tack call. Kobe's injury happened on a non-foul or an extremely ticky-tack call. But Jack got absolutely hammered on what would have been the game-winning FTs and they copped out and gave him a timeout (which, by the rules, can only happen on possession and he didn't have possession because he was fouled hard going down). The 50-18 number isn't the problem in and of itself.. it's just a symptom of a inconsistent reffing.
Can some post a video of like the last couple mins of the game. I know NBA.com is gonna give a ****ty recap but I really curious to see some of the calls made
Curious about this myself so I looked this up. For reference - for the season overall, Jazz are 7th in free throw attempts and are ranked 26th in number of opponent free throw attempts. Here are the last few games: 4/1: Jazz - 18, Blazers - 17 4/3: Jazz - 18, Nuggets - 32 4/5: Jazz - 11, Hornets - 20 4/7: Jazz - 7, Warriors - 18 4/9: Jazz - 14, Thunder - 18 4/12: Jazz - 17, Wolves - 21
It does seem a wee bit strange. Did they suddenly change their playing style? What could have changed in the last two weeks?
BTW, tonight's game was the largest FT discrepancy in over 10 years, and it didn't even involved hack-a-shaq.
From another forum, with a few examples in the final minutes: "Also, it's not just the free throws. Look at the questionable calls. Metta World Peace grabs a rebound, grabs Festus Ezeli's arm, clinches it and swings it, yet the foul is on Festus Ezeli. Kobe Bryant has the ball and slips, yet it's a foul on Harrison Barnes. Stephen Curry guards Steve Blake, Dwight Howard comes in with a moving screen and they call a foul on Curry. What makes it even more questionable is that the refs made Steve Blake shoot the free throws instead of Dwight Howard. Jarrett Jack gets knocked down on the ground when getting a rebound and no call was called against the Lakers. So many of these calls were happening all night, right from the beginning of the game, too."
Jizzholes are 7th in FT drawing all season long. All of a sudden, get shoot like 10 less FT than their opponent for the past two weeks? I think not.