I agree that they're easily swayed. Which is why McHale needs to man up and get the occasional tech to put pressure on the officials if the calls are too one-sided. That's a strategic part of coaching in the NBA. Playing the refs. What happens 99% of the time after a coach gets T'd up for complaining about something? The thing he was complaining about usually gets rectified. Morey sending videos to the league office ain't gonna be enough. McHale has to stop worrying about his bank balance and eat the fine every now and then in defense of his players.
Bullard mentioned a few games back that teams had been complaining to the league about Harden's FT attempts. It seems like we have another "Yao getting extra scrutiny for his screens" situation here. I just don't see how anyone can come up with a logical explanation for the free throws last night that doesn't involve intentionally swallowing the whistle. Even incompetence wouldn't work out to such a huge disparity. An idiot wouldn't show such extreme bias in terms of results. You'd expect an idiot to just call a bunch of bad foul calls on both sides or not enough for either side. The charge calls on Harden and Dwight at the end of the game were devastating calls and were such obvious flops.
I would be shocked it Gasol doesn't get fined for the flop in the closing minutes they called on Harden. He either missed him entirely or barely touched his face and Gasol fell the ground like someone laid him out with a punch.
Glad I did not say anything before watching the game, because even with all those points in the paint, we have no case against the referees AT ALL! Hey, I am all for calling out the referees, I had quite the rant against Tony Brothers and for the weird officiating vs. Wizards I think. That was a clear rig job. This was far from it. The only really blown call I saw was the Butler flop, that is it. Sure, they missed some here and there, but guess what: we got away with stuff too. Howard did not defend very well and pushed a lot, got called only once or twice. Noah flopped yes, but so did D-Mo and both got rewarded! They missed a huge one on our own Brewer, so stop whining y'all. Guess where we lost it: not respecting their outside shooting, late game execution and freedom to do whatever we want on offense and rotation defense. The Bulls were very good on defense and Butler & Noah have the reputation, so maybe that is good enough to withhold the whistle. Harden gets the calls on offense, a lot of times by reputation as well. Bulls just executed better and it was a hell of a game, this game was far from heavily influenced by the referees. It wasn't for some numbers, I wouldn't have even noticed it.
LOL i almost died eating my apple. I don't think there has ever been a 5-30 free throw differential. They had 27 points off free throws alone. If the rockets took a bunch of jumpers I can see a small case, we lived in the paint and the fouls were clear. 62points in the paint and only 5 free throws....Butler's flop was about it huh? ok lol
I know whenever a soccer ref messes up he gets suspended immediately. That makes them work harder and care more about their own mistakes.
Yep. They let both teams play physical. Through 47.5 minutes, the referees had allowed the teams to play so physical that the Rockets had only taken 2 free throws as a result of a foul call. Through 47.5 minutes, the referees had allowed the teams to play so physical that the Bulls had only taken 28 free throws as a result of a foul call. Seems legit.
There has obviously been a concerted effort to not give the Rockets as many foul calls as they used too. But it's been taken to an extreme as to what they aren't calling, but at the same time they still call ticky tack offensive fouls on Dwight that we can't get at the other end. And fining players for flops has not been taken seriously so they will continue to do it.
Eerily similar breakdown in logic that we see in the Lin thread. Haters can't decide if Lin's the worst player in the NBA or a superstar. A player who allegedly doesn't belong in the NBA but is held to the standard of consistency and greatness in Superstars. Haters gonna hate. Non-rocket fans and Rocket fans alike.
Stop it, just watch the game, a lot of our fouls were legitimate. They simply did not foul as much. Beverley played physical with Rose, did not get called for it. Noah played physical with Howard & D-Mo, did not get called for it. Howard played physical with Pau & Noah, did not get called for it.
I did watch the game. And yes, we did foul more. Absolutely have no problem with the Bulls getting more foul calls. 28-2 is the true spread when you take out the technical and the final foul shots we got when the game was over. You can't watch that game and honestly tell me that they were treating both teams the same. There were multiple times that Dwight went up with the ball and got hit on the arm for no call. I can recall twice where DMo was spinning in the paint and got bumped for no call. It's nice and all to say that they let "both teams play physical" but 28-2 says otherwise.
No they didn't. Did you seeing the offensive fouls they called on Howard and Harden at the end of the game? Did you see the Gasol flop where they called Harden for a foul? You call that refs letting both teams play physical?
I was thinking about this last night, with regards to technical fouls. So many are rescinded nowadays as replays show league officials that the officials often jump the gun and "over-technical" players for showing ANY kind of emotion. That's all well and good that they aren't fining these players when they discover an erroneous tech call, but what about those points? In close games, 1 point, 2 points, and these types of calls can kill the momentum of a team. It's not fair that refs are immune to bad calls. They should be fined for making bad/missing calls. They can't get it right all the time, but when they get it wrong, they should be punished or they'll have no deterrent in the future to call bogus technical fouls. Also, Dwight needs to get in a refs face every once in a while. Maybe McHale needs to get ejected. But someone needs to give these refs an earful. Dwight just laughs it off. He is getting crushed down there, but they don't call a damn thing, then on the other end he can't even breathe on a guy. Fouls are never going to be called evenly in a game. Each team will never end with the exact same amount of calls. But the fact that we took 20 something more shots than them, had 62 points in the paint, yet didn't get a single foul call in the first half? That's quite appalling.
Feigen said it perfectly in the 5 lessons learned: they let us in the lanes which allowed us to score so many points in the paint. When we got inside, they simply did not foul much. Sure, they might have whacked Howard on the arms. Guess what, Howard pushed some guys quite a few times (Gasol in the back was clear as day). Harden got fouled once clearly when going inside by Kirk I believe which was not called in the 1st half. In the 2nd half, you could maybe feel that Mirotic fouled him but I liked the non-call since he went straight up and blocked him. Again, you can go by numbers, I felt nothing was out of the ordinary watching that game.
Our starting lineup had 20 fouls to the Bulls 7. Rockets players were getting fouled the entire game if your defining a foul as what we were getting called for in comparison to what the bulls were doing to our players. Bulls were allowed to touch and grab and we weren't. It's as simple as that.
Harden hit him in the face, I already mentioned the Noah flop but so did D-Mo so score there 1-1. Butler on Harden flop I also talked about, so?
WTF are you talking about??? how did they "let both teams play physical"???? the 5-30 ft discrepency speaks directly to the opposite. they let the bulls play physical and completely handcuffed the rockets. the probabilities that in a game as physical as this one that the bulls were somehow 600% more disciplined on the defensive end than the rockets are astronomically low. it's this continued notion that the rockets are just this bumpling, incompotent, lacksidically coached team and every other good team is not that is making this board difficult to read.
A lot of whining in here. The fact is, the Rockets lost because of poor execution down the stretch. Period.
