Are you talking about when DMO jumped in front of Gibson and took a charge while Gibson was driving to the basket? Dude that's totally different from a guy posting up and making a power basketball move out the post and getting a bs offensive foul call. That isn't 1-1. The only thing rockets got away with was Brewer stepping out of bounds. The calls against the rockets foul wise is what made the biggest difference in who won and lost.
this is just absurd. the same calls that put the bulls on the line 25 times more than the rockets were the same non-calls on the other end of the court. you're watching the games to fit your narrative - easy as that. this was probably the most physical game we've played all year. to think that there could be such massive parity in fouls when we got inside the paint as often as we did is absurd. no one's saying the bulls didn't or aren't the better defensive team - but they're not 6x's the defensive team the rockets are.
You are right, you CAN go by the numbers. 28-2 Yes, Dwight got away with some fouls. Duh. That happens every night. You can't say both teams were getting away with it though when one team took 28 free throws and the other took 2! That's logically inconsistent. Between the two of us, using simple recall, we've already come up with 8 more free throw attempts for the Rockets. That's without doing a play by play review. The idea that a team just lets you into the paint to score and never fouled is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. In the modern NBA with the easy foul calls it's just intellectually dishonest to say a team just didn't foul. Completely agree. Somehow last night McHale became such a goober that a team that usually takes 20 free throws took 2 (legit ones.) Who knew it was so easy to just "not foul" in an NBA where you don't even have to commit a foul to get called for them. (Which happened last night to the Rockets as well) Both can be true. The Rockets lost because of poor execution and their poor execution was decisive because the game was so poorly officiated earlier on.
Don't assume everyone here complaining about the officiating is saying that's why Houston lost it. The refs didn't hand Chicago the game with 3 minutes to go up by 5...but they did put them in a position to come back which they did on the strength of them outworking us in the final few minutes. I think the point is, we probably should have had more than just a 5 point lead going into the final minutes and all those fouls meant Chicago lived at the line late in all quarters.
that's like your boss slashing one of your tires then b!tching at you for coming in late to work. believe it or not, in basketball - just like in real life - extenuating circumstances can drastically impact performance. could we have "executed better" down the stretch? sure. so could the bulls. but is that the reason we lost THIS game? absoutely not. we executed fantastic for damn near 43 minutes... no credit is given there.
Okay, I agree that in today's NBA with everything being called, it is almost impossible. However, I liked the fact that they didn't call ticky-tack fouls and while they might have called them in favour of Chicago according to some, I don't think there were many. Today, players look for the whistle rather than play, which is why I might see it differently. Usually Harden gets a lot of the calls he did not get today, but I can live with that. Well, you can throw out big words all you want, as a team I just didn't see them foul that much.
Numbers don't lie. I've never been a conspiracy theorist but it looks to me like all those teams complaining about Harden's FT attempts have started to affect officiating. And not just as it pertains to Harden. As others have noted this same thing happened to Yao. I truly believe that scuttlebutt about refs being instructed to call fouls on Yao "differently" was a legit directive. Same for Shaq back in the day. As for Harden, I think most of his FT trips have been deserved. He will occasionally get one of those superstar calls that most players won't get but most of his calls are pretty accurate. It's that crazy unorthodox style of holding the ball so far away from his body that does it. When he was in OKC playing the Rockets it drove me nuts. He was daring folks to swipe/reach and just getting constantly hacked. It goes against every natural basketball instinct to NOT reach out for the ball when a player does that. Hence, the foul and trips to the line. I will say that I hate when he drives looking for the foul and clearly not attempting to make the shot. Things like that can cause a ref to swallow the whistle even on legit fouls.
I'm skeptical Harden hit him in the face - if he did, it was the very tip of his fingernail but again I'm skeptical because there was no discernible scratch I saw on his face when he was shooting freebies ...but that's not what got Gasol the call anyway - it was him collapsing in a ball on the court afterwards. The whistle was late meaning the refs didn't see the foul and instead blew a whistle on the reaction to the supposed foul.
But see in the Bulls game, I did not see one hack that obviously needs to be called, regardless of how people around the NBA thnk about that.
The refs may not be responsible for the Rockets season record, or any kind of grand conspiracy. But it is possible that they influenced this single game in a negative way. Yes, Harden gets calls. Yes, the Rockets played poorly. Yes, the Rockets made bad decisions. Yes, the Rockets lost, in part, because they did not play as well as they could have. But don't be afraid of the hard truth. Say it with me - "the refs ruined this game". It's liberating!
They didn't, we were competitive until the last 4 minutes, so you have to ask yourself: what did we do differently down the stretch? From watching the game just now, I can say it was: A) bad execution on offense, ISO Harden that failed three times in a row, hoisting up late threes, not having D-Mo or going into the post, it was all from the outside (explains the lack of FT shooting at least partially for the conspiracy theorists) B) late rotation on defense and the Bulls simply exexcuted great down the stretch.
Oh so the fouls that lead to the bulls shooting 30 free throws were legit.....that's not a question. I'm convinced that's how you feel about this and that's ok because we are all entitled to our own opinions. Though sometimes trying too hard and going out of your way to be objective can make you look foolish. They say when something doesn't add up, it's usually because the facts are missing from the equation.
you think because we weren't getting calls for 44 minutes of the game we would get them in the last 4 minutes. what was the point of driving if no calls would be made. sure you can say, refs would've made up for the calls but offensive calls on harden proved otherwise.
It's always about the perception in this league. The Bulls always played with the physical style, and refs will call the game with that in mind. The same thing goes with Bev's defense. Harden has that reputation on offense, that's why he always got the calls. Unfortunately, his defender last night has that reputation on defense, hence Harden didn't get the calls.
Least fouls per game.. Chicago 2nd. Houston 29th. They play sound defense. Their aggressive D also mean ref would call less fouls. Been that way for as long as I can remember.
Exactly! Also, I would love it if we didn't rely so much on FT shooting so let's start winning without whining.
