Duncan has now officially passed Kobe as the player getting the most freebie fouls in the game. It's not that they were just calling ticky tack stuff when Duncan had the ball - they were calling some fouls when the Rockets got all ball.
Couldn't agree more. Teh gRizz' announcers are terrible about whining too. Must be something in the franchise.
After watching this game, it looks like Yao may be trying to wrestle that Mr. Floppy title away. No wait - bad choice of words - wrestling would be to physical a word for Yao.
Geez, blaming refs...The average IQ of all Rockets fans has just dropped five points in this thread...
Duncan is 2 time MVPs, he will get his due from the refs, there are 3 or 4 times last night Duncan stay in the paint for more than 5 sec. and never got a call.
Both Rasho and Willis were manhandling Yao, and when he made a move, got hammered and the ball squirts away, it was no-call every time. Then, the same thing happens to Duncan on the other end, immediate call. We got punked on our own homecourt.
I also saw a few noncalls and phantom calls in the Rockets favor. The refs were terrible PERIOD last night.
The refs made bad calls both ways. I saw Francis hop and tip down the baseline for a 4-step lay-in- NO CALL! I saw Cato commit a near-homicide on Ginobili wit' a movin' pick- NO CALL! It was a terrible game for the refs and both teams. Shootin' was HORRIBLE!
The refereeing was bad, and there were a lot of really questionable calls.....that said they are still terrible.
Did Bowen ever get the ball, you do know that if we foul some one in the the last 2 min with out the ball it's freethrows AND possession right?
Oh yes! It was those mean nasty refs that caused the Rockets to turn the ball over 20 times and shoot the basketball so badly. They and they alone cost us this game...
I only got to watch the last half of the final quarter. I didn't get to see why the Spurs had the tremendous free-throw advantage, but I started wondering and thus began paying close attention. I saw bad calls both ways for a few minutes. Then, in the winning time of the game, when the Rockets had the lead: 2:30 Parker travels all over the place before passing to Bowen for the 3-pointer. Foul is called also of course. Spurs never trail again. Key play of the game. 1:25 Yao "fouls" Duncan as Duncan apparently has no trouble in scooping in a beautiful lefty layup. Lead goes from four to five as a result. 1:17 Taylor is bumped under the basket with a blatant hip check by Rasho during a shot attempt. No foul is called and the ball goes out of bounds. Amazingly, they do not even award the ball to Houston as a makeup for the non-call. Five point lead remains, game is basically now out of reach as a result. If these three calls are called fairly, Rockets are only down one with Taylor at the line to put them ahead, and it could easily be the Rockets' game. I think being the NBA champions comes with it certain privileges.
Absolutely. We lost by four points; and it could be 10 points FT differential if the ref called it fair. Too much respect to the MVP, man!
I don't normally complain about officiating, but this game was ridiculous. In the manner that All Star caliber NBA players can upon occassion play horrendously, the same can be said for an officiating crew. The very best NBA officiating is totally transparent when it is functioning at it's highest level. The officiating in the Spurs-Rockets game wasn't anywhere close to transparent. If you have a tape, you don't have to look any further than he middle of Q1 for two SA charges that weren't called and that Rasho's lower body fouled Yao in the act of shooting long before Duncan tied Yao up for a jump ball. No intelligent poster is going to entirely blame the officiating for a close loss...but no intelligent poster would claim the officiating of this Rox loss was transparent. If you choose to think that Tim Duncan running into Jack Nies and knocking him to the floor, the subsequent technical and single game suspension of Duncan was not on Neis's mind at all in the next game he officiates Duncan...OK...but don't proclaim what passed for officiating of the Spurs-Rox games as transparent. Even Spurs' announcer Lance Blanks doing his best Sean Elliott imitation had trouble ignoring the tone the officiating set for the game. (Example...the Francis steal and breakaway where the replay shows him fouled by Parker but it's a Steve TO). Jack Nies, Leon Wood & Ed Malloy are at the bottom of the league in number of fouls called: http://www.coverwire.com/basketball/refdata.htm But they are at the top of the league on the team being spotted winning the game. My suspicion is the Rockets were spotting the Spurs (better record, at home) and this crew was right on what could have been predicted...an underdog win. When the lowest league average for an officiating team is over 40 fouls per game, and when this officiating team calls only 37 and of those 37 only 11 were on SA and the Rocket took only 5 3pters...that is not transparent officiating.
I think Yao will get his fair share of calls soon. It may not be this year, but it'll be soon. Yao's position in the NBA is different than the other players. David Stern is going to start canning refs that don't get with the global economic picture.
Perhaps I obscured my point but I do not prefer that Yao gets a "fair share" of calls. Were I a Lakers fan, Shaq's dislodging charges that don't get called would embarrass me. As far as the Rox go, win or lose, I prefer that the officiating is balanced and consistent. The players will adjust if the officials are consistent. IMO, balance and consistency are imbedded in "transparent" officiating. Personally, it is hard for me to relate to Mark Cuban but he has had a positive impact in getting the NBA to be more assertive in their evaluations of the officials. Let's hope the last Spurs-Rox game was an aberration and not a trend.
This is the biggest thing I dont like about the league...the freakin refs. The refs giving "respect" to big name players, to high-marketing franchise, attempting to make the game "flow better" for the fans, that's OK because it is a business, HOWEVER most of them dont know how to adjust when games are closing out. When it's every point counts, you need to follow the damn rules!!! Also since they are after all PEOPLE ( ), they are capable of emotional reactions and end up doing stupid craps. Look at last night's Mavs-Lakers game for example...
