I've been trying to rewatch that particular play very unbiased, from the angle of the refs, trying to let the game flow without many whistles. This Harden-Lebron lock up is a humorous one. As Harden blows by Lebron, Lebron doesn't want to give him a clear path to the basket so he puts his shoulder into him (typical bully ball defense, see Ron Artest). When Harden typically blows by people, he frees his trailing arm with an uppercut swing, causing contact and the defender to raise their arms in surrender (I'm not fouling him, ref). The two techniques collide and they're locked in and no one wants to give. The ref may have been 50/50 at this point, without a benefit-of-the-doubt to either side due to the lessened whistle game flow. Lebron tries to sell the offensive foul by locking Harden's hook as Harden tries to sell the hold and get dragged off his pivot, which he is and takes one big HOP off it. Harden appears to re-engage the hook towards the end of the contact as Lebron whines about being fouled as he's reaching over-the-shoulder. The ref was just as confused as we all were and froze/gave up lol.
Lebron was a man possessed. I have never seen him act like such a thug throughout a regular season game. And Mozgov was hacking everyone. Bev (as usual) was very handsy on the perimeter and Ariza/Jones got a lot of body contact in the paint with Lebron that went uncalled. I will give them a bit of sympathy but they have to call what is obvious.
I can't say it was particularly biased, but they allowed some physical play. LeBron got superstar treatment, but I think Harden did as well - the flagrant was not a biased call, you cant have three refs look at a replay of a kick and not issue some kind of more severe foul. Harden got held a lot, but Ariza was also pretty grabby on LeBron, especially in OT. The lockup thing was just weird, I think the refs decided during a timeout that they were going to no-call any kind of lockups that were done just to try to draw a foul, but when it just kept going and going with both guys looking at the refs and basically stopping the play, they shouldve called something, anything, at that point.
Woulda been awesome instead of calling a foul on Lebron or a travel on James, if the refs decided to call defensive three second violation on Kevin Love. I mean he froze in the paint for the entire play.
I can't imagine a scenario, short of him just outright decking someone, where Lebron James gets ejected from any game. It may be just be that it's Lebron or it may just be this foolish notion that you shouldn't eject the most the valuable player on a team. (Of course, they would still have no problem ejecting Harden, I'm sure.) I think it's idiotic. Anyone who's that important to their should know not to mix it up. Lebron instead KNOWS that he can get away with much more than any other player.
I think for defensive three-seconds, you have to be inside the protected arc around the basket, and Love is outside it in that play.
Clearly looked like Harden was holding onto Lebron when they locked arms. If anything it should have been a foul on Harden. BTW Refs suck every game.
The more I see this, the more I'm convinced that the ref indeed was so confused, he just froze. Not acceptable, but understandable. That said, why did Lebron keep Harden's arm locked up if he was trying not to be called for a foul? If Harden was deliberately trying to hook into him (and I have no idea whether he was or not), why not extricate yourself from the situation, so you don't get called for a foul? Instead, instantaneously, Lebron looks straight at the ref and starts arguing his case while the play is still going on...with Harden's arm still pinned down. He knows that if he looks an official in the eye, he'll get the call. That's when Harden starts to purposely hook back around Lebron. In my opinion, call a double foul in that case if you don't know what to call, and let them both shoot free throws. There's clearly tons of illegal contact going on, so there was a foul somewhere.
Meh I thought it was fairly called, even if we would have lose stil think it was a fairly officiated game.
The big part of this for me is . .. . LEbron impeded Hardens progress to the basket EVEN IF Harden initiated the contact. . LeBron was not standing still to take a charge so . . either way the foul was on LeBron How many times does the defense get the foul even when they don't initiate contact? ALL THE TIME!! But not in the case of LeBron Rocket River
The game was poorly officiated for both teams, it's one of those cases where there is more of an argument for incompetence than corruption.
Absolutely not. Check that non charge call on Lebron running into DMo or the non call when Brewer clearly gets hacked. They made sure Cleveland stayed close
They just released the missed calls from the Rockets vs Cleveland game: http://official.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/03/L2M-Mar1.pdf On that Harden hook: Should've been personal
Wait I'm wrong, It should've been an offensive foul on Harden first: Overall it looks 50/50 when it comes to missed calls
