Usually teams on the receiving end of physical, dirty plays or flops is at a disadvantage. When they start reacting the refs seem to suddenly sense the need to keep things under control, and the responding team gets hit with a lot of whistles. Happens to Dwight all the time. It's kinda frustrating with all the new tech refs are as inconsistent as they were 10~20 years ago.
In playoff or clutch time, refs do allow more phisical plays. # of fouls called is not the right indicator, since the degree of contact allowed is more than foul calls increased. Simply watch the games, and it's so obvious. Good thread for discussion.
Our offense grinded to a halt against the overly physical play of the Suns last night? We had 66 points at halftime and 122 points total. If that is grinding to a halt, I would take it every time.
I don't think refs swallow their whistles., but I do think that much like the teams, they prepare better for series by watching film and learning player tendencies in different situations. This means players with a history of flopping or gimmicky moves with the sole intention of drawing fouls get calls less often than normal and players with a big bag of dirty tricks to get away with fouls get fouls called on them more often. It probably makes for more or less the same amount of fouls but it can vastly change the course of the game.
What kind of offense do you guys think Miami runs? What kind of offense do you think other recent NBA Finals participant, San Antonio, OKC and Dallas run? How many of these teams don't shoot a lot of 3s and get layups and free throws? Look at the data. All of these teams either shoot a lot of FTs or a lot of 3s, or both.
This myth about 3pt shooting teams can't win a ring is busted for a while now imo..if there is one thing which can hold you back, it's lack of defensive hustle and energy
