The 6th foul on Yao looked pretty bad but I gotta agree with the other posters that on the road you have to figure the calls aren't going to go your way and you don't let the game be close enough so the refs are a factor. Other than that I don't know what to make of this game. On the one hand I pissed that the Rockets have lost their hold on the last playoff spot and have blown yet another road game. On the other hand the Rockets showed a lot of grit coming back to force OT in a very tough situation on the road. They could've folded like we've seen these Rockets do too many times before but kept on playing tough. I'm also glad to see Yao getting a more aggressive on offense and taking control. This game could be a good sign of things to come if the Rockets can maintain this level of play but of course this loss shows how important it is for the Rockets to take care of business against the Heat, Bulls and Clips out there otherwise they wouldn't be in their current playoff predicament.
I've been watching the NBA for over 20 years and the refs ALWAYS make calls like the ones in this game, so to whine about it now doesn't help any. Francis was 4-19 from the field and Mobley was 5-19, bad calls don't help, but you need to keep playing through it. I almost couldn't believe this morning when I heard Steve Francis comment about the refs, he's my favorite player, but I'm starting to be more turned off by his constant excuses. BTW I can hardly even watch the NBA anymore because of the refs can change a game on the spot. I was watching the Memphis vs Indiana game last night and saw Hubie Brown get a tech for hardly saying anything at all to the ref. Then he was just talking to the ref some more and Steve Javie, who was about 20 feet away gave him his second tech and ejected him. How Javie still has a job is a miracle to me.
actually... I think they were soccer refs - like when one guys takes another out during a soccer game - see Madsen hit the deck and flopped in "pain" before the play... once the refs pulled out the "red card" on Yao - throwing him out of the game - then Madsne leaps up and runs down the court and he is healed ! (WARNING - only those familar with Soccar or Jim Rome will understand the reference)
1. The 6th foul on Yao was bull****. And no, it wasn't a make-up call for the lack of a foul on Yao the play before. Because that was a make-up call for the bad call that gave Yao his 5th foul a couple of plays before. There was a 5 play sequence, in which 3 of the plays pretty clearly resulted in bad calls. That's disgraceful. 2. The idea that "refs don't lose games, players do" is complete bull****. No team is good enough to consistently win against the referees decisions. Usually, the decisions are going to balance out. But sometimes, you've got to wonder (the best argument I've ever seen for a conspiracy was Game 6 of the NBA Finals Lakers-Pacers... Kobe couldn't be blocked, it was a foul, no matter if all contact was on the ball). The Lakers seem to get more than their fair share. And the Rockets really aren't 5-6 points better than the Lakers. You can't expect a team to make up for that kind of deficit. If the refs simply announced at the beginning of the game "gee, I think we'll spot the Lakers 6 points today, and artificially limit your big man to X # of minutes..." you'd scream bloody murder and wouldn't expect the Rockets to make up the difference. It's no different here. 3. Mark Madsen was "getting the calls." Personally, I find this unreal. Not only was it on the flop around Yao... it was on every freakin' play. The guy fouls on almost every possession. He's not gifted enough to play D without fouling. And it's never called. He hustles... but that shouldn't give him an exemption.
Everyone talks about the Kobe's incorrect offensive cancelling out Yao's foul-out offensive. What about Yao's 4th foul when Kobe initiated the contact? Yao just stood straight up with arms raise. Without this bad call, Yao wouldn't have been fouled out or Rockets even won by 1 point after the first OT.
there is no way in hell anyone can say the Rockets did not want that game more. They played their freaking hearts out from the fourth quarter on. They were just having a bad shooting game, and really relied on Yao. Unfortunately, refs let madson play like a 'sumo wrestler' like bill and calvin said. And then they call, what was it, 4 fould on yao, 2 offensive, in overtime????????? i mean come on And there was this one sequence in OT, when we are up 2, and cat gets rebound, and is pushed out of bounds, no call. he luckily saves it to steve who rushed up the court, and gets tripped. no call. then we inbound the ball to yao, madson takes flop, and they call offensive on Yao???? total bull You can blame the 24 losses of the seoson on the Rocks, but not yesterdays.
What pissed me off the most about that call was that the jackass ref who called the foul was on the opposite end of the court. There's nothing I hate more than refs who make calls when it's clear they're out of position to do so.
The refs didn't cost the game for us, we did. I mean sure there were 2-3 calls on Yao that were at least very questionable among others, but still. This doesn't mean I like the fact that we're pretty much out of the playoffs but still. Instead of picking fault with the refs you can look at how we shot 37.1% from the field, how our starters minus Yao shot 26.1% (SF 4-19, Cat 5-15, JP 1-5, EG 2-7). You can look at how MoT got comfortable and thought he was a shooter and could carry this team. You can look at how SF started trying those stupid ISO plays again or how instead of a easy stop and pop at the end of the 1st OT, Cat tried a fadeaway. You can also look at how Rudy called 3 TO's when we were on a mini-run in the 2nd quarter and none in the 3rd when we were getting whipped. And of course there's the persistent question, where was our perimeter D? What I'm saying is that the ref job was terrible, but I hate us turning into the whiny ass Fakers fans arguing about calls after that Dick Bavetta game (yeah it was so bad it deserves to be named after him, even worse than this game).
Here's what I don't get. I can understand the no-calls on things like Mobley getting pushed out of bounds, Stevie getting hacked on a drive, etc., by for goodness sake, no-call it both ways. If you're not gonna call Mobley getting thrown down, then please don't call a foul on Yao for trying to get out of Madsen's bear hug. And when Kobe initiates contact with Yao on a drive on the opposite end, why does he get the foul when Steve does the same thing on our end and there's no whistle blown? Ref's shouldn't be a deciding point in the game. I have no quams saying the refs shouldn'tve made that flagrant foul call last time we played the Lakers. But I also believe this game we were getting hit with ticky-tack fouls that were no-calls on the other end. And regardless of the number of foul shots by both teams, in the crunch time, we were hit with way more junk calls than the Lakers. I wonder if for some reason Madsen was allowed to foul at will simply because Walker had already fouled out, and they weren't going to allow Yao put 2 different Laker centers on the bench.
You just answered your own questions. This is the Lakers we're playing, on their home turf, what did you expect?
Rox didn't just lose because of the refs. There were bad calls against both teams. These were stronger contibutors to our loss: We started out in a hole - right off the bat, LA took a strong lead, and we spent most of the first half playing catch-up. Steve's shooting was struggling - His shots rimmed out a lot. Sometimes they just don't fall. Also, Fisher was pretty successful in keeping Steve out of rhythm. We needed to do a better job of fouling out Walker/Madsen - When Madsen and Walker started getting in foul trouble, we should have taken it to 'em more. It took us too long to foul-out Walker, and Madsen didn't foul-out at all. Bad strategy. We coulda contained Kobe, but didn't - We were successful in containing Kobe in the 2nd quarter, with Hawk doing a double/triple team on him. But for some reason, we abandoned that method for most of the remainder of the game. Hawkins ended up with only 7 minutes in the game, and he shoulda seen more PT. We need to make our open jumpers - Our players MUST make the open jump shots that are being given to them, or all that ball movement is for nothing. It helps our score, it's a morale lifter, and it also builds confidence between teammates. Also, though we made clutch free throws, some of our players (like Cato) need to improve their FT percentage. Rice and Griffin saw too much PT without enough contribution - Rice had only 5 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists in 35 minutes of play. Griffin got 4 points, and a block in 17 minutes of play. Together, they had 4 turnovers and 4 personal fouls. That's not nearly good enough for the amount of time they were in the game. We still take ill-advised shots - If Cat or Steve isn't having a good shooting night, they shouldn't put up a jumper (or a three) when there's no-one underneath to rebound. If you're gonna put up a shot like that, you'd better be sure that you're on your game. We let Steve play too long - Here's how it should work: If Steve isn't getting it done, go to your bench. If the bench is equally uneffective, put Steve back in 'cuase he'll probably have a better chance of picking up his game. Moochie had two rebounds, one assist and four points in only 5 minutes of play. He shoulda seen more PT. -- droxford
Think the NBA will admit the refs made bad calls against the Rockets like they did for the Lakers last month? Only for Shaq would they admit they messed up. The thing that turns me off most about the NBA is the officiating. Why do superstars get preferential treatment? They never get called for fouls, and they get free throws half the time they miss. The superstars are already better, why do we need the refs to help make them better. Officiate the game fairly! No preferential treatment!
ah i loved haven's post. yao's 5th foul was horrible, made up by the charge on kobe, then they went and screwed up again and fouled a star out of a game in OT with mark madsen. people keep saying, it's the lakers, what do you expect. you may expect star calls for kobe/shaq but you sure don't expect and definitely don't accept your star of the night being fouled out by friggin mark madsen. that is so above "you gotta expect that" it's ridiculous. and also as haven said, refs do cost you games. in a double OT game, i'm pretty sure a point here and there (much less 5 or 6 here and there) is HUGE. so what if the rox shot 37%, so what if mobley didn't pull up, what did the lakers do to deserve to win except get horrible calls that led to undeserved points for them. despite our horrendous performance, we came back and deserved to win more than they did and got it taken away from us. and game 6 against sactown last year was far more of a conspiracy. i'm sorry, 16 fouls and 27 ft's in one quarter when it just happens to be the league's favorite team on the verge of elimination is a little hard to believe.
