How the Rockets are getting absolutely jobbed by the referees against the Blazers. With statistics!

One thing that drives me absolutely mad is the ref's tendancy in blowing whistle on Howard during regular play vs. obvious hacking situation. I have noticed this many times during the regular season. Howard would labor himself to death during games but gets no calls. He gets pushed in the paint, shoved, contact everywhere, but as soon as the shot is put up, the other way they go whether it's hit or missed. But then in obvious hacking situation, any opposing player puts so much as a fingernail on him, the refs would waste no time in blowing their whistle. Sometimes they'd blow the whistle even before Howard gets touched. I remember there was a period of time during the regular season when Howard was really struggling with FT, and was looking to delay hacking, he would either try to run away from fouling, or just stand in the baseline after inbounding, but it's as if the refs had their mind made up about calling fouls and make the clock stop, they'd be calling fouls on something much less egregious.

Houston has lived with a history of its star big man not getting the respect from refs for a long time. you look at LMA and his game compare to arguably the two most dominant centers in the modern era in Yao and Hakeem. They are all somewhat considered to be "finesse" players, with alot of post up, fade away, and mid-range jump shots. This type of play does not look to draw contact, thus less foul calls. Yet LMA is getting calls in this series that were rarely duplicated when Yao and Hakeem played in the post season. In the Mavs series, Yao was literally hacked and tripped up almost everytime he makes a move, and there was no whistle.

i really believe that somehow these games are "fixed", that the results are somewhat determined. Well, the refs probably don't dictate the outcome, but I don't believe for a second that they don't go into a game with pre-conceived notion on which team they will favor. Our "stars" certainly have their faults, but it's the obvious double standard that makes the games unbearable.

conspiracy or not, there is very little average fans like ourselves can do. do we have the collective balls to man up and boycott the games in response to what we perceived as injustice? probably not, and the NBA knows it, and that's why they have been getting away with it for years.

 

Harden has literally stopped going to the basket because he knows he isn't quick enough to put up an easy unchallenged shot and he knows he isn't going to get a whistle and 2 shots. The result? A missed shot and the ball going the other way on a fast break.

In my opinion it is the louder crowd that impacts the refs minds on letting contact go. The crowd is buzzing and mentally is says just let it go. Obviously "the whistles are put away in the playoffs" but to this magnitude has been something that needs to be addressed. Otherwise Harden needs to change his game.

 

The other main factor is consistency. I have an IQ over 140 and I cannot pick up on what they are doing. Sometimes a simple flick can be called and other times a knock from an elephant is left alone.

I can say they talk about what has unfolded at half time and other points and they mentally make a note to change that. I see this results in some BS calls.

They need to be smarter. This game is one of the hardest to officiate but that is no excuse, just try harder, train more and be better at it.

 

Congratulations.


Honestly, the calls LMA gets on Asik piss me right off. Completely changes the game when he can get those calls. I felt joey Crawford actually did a good job last night.

 

Lillard also averaged 35.8 minutes in the regular season and only driving an average of 7.6 times per game. In the playoffs Lillard is averaging 45 minutes per game and 10.7 drives per game. I actually think it is best to get up in Lillards face and make him drive past you and contest him at the rim. He is among the worst point guards in the NBA at field goal percentage on drives at only 40.4%. He did hit a circus shot last night, but he is not considered one of the better finishers at the rim. Here are some other elite point guard pecentages when driving:

 

i'm here for the happy endings? only one so far

 

I dreaded this would come during the Playoffs when the refs swallow their whistles on the Harden drives. I was relieved when some Rockets fan, with stats, proved that it wasn't the cast for the last 2 Playoffs for Harden. Right now I am convinced something is being done this year to combat Harden and give him less calls. Did team owners/GMs complained to the NBA?

 

Y'all are showing your homer tendencies again. Game 1 I'll give you but game 3 theres were TOO MANY missed calls that went the rockets way. The officiating has been horrible and inconsistent PERIOD, not just in favor of Portland

 

In game 3, I had the game on the TV and the boxscore on my laptop. At halftime, the Rockets had 6/7 FT attempts and Portland had ?/17 FT attempts. At the end of the 3rd quarter, Rockets had the same 6/7 FT and Portland 21/24. In three games, the Rockets have had 3 quarters with NO FT ATTEMPTS! Coincidence? Law of statistics says that can't happen by chance.

 

This may have been mentioned already but

Im tired of LA slapping down as a way to play D and never getting the call. Its easy. Slap down towards the offensive player, if the ball goes up, it is a foul.
As a matter of fact, in my early days of ball, I was told to never slap down towards the ball because its always going to get called.
It is getting old real quick.

And dont even get me started on LA kicking his legs out on jump shots/fadaways...

 

Besides not getting foul calls, I am concerned that percentage wise, we got calls for moving and illegal screens ten times more than the Blazers.

They would have one in almost every possession.

 

In the first game, the Rox had zero FT by end of first half.