The rockets have had their issues with the refs, last night wasn't one of them. Scola is foul prone every game. The 4th foul on yao was bad, but a 7'6 guy shouldn't try to take charges. How many times have you seen dream,shaq, or even deke try to take charges. It would also help if you have guys that can put the ball on the floor. Also, everything for the most part from Yao was going away from the hoop. He got the baseline spin and dunk. Other than that, he was shooting jimmy's. Wafer went to the rack, but they ddnt foul him. Landry finished around the rack and didn't get fouled either. When you have standstill jumpshooters, you don't get to the line as much as a slashing team. Utah fouls the most, but goes to the line top 5 every yr. Why? Because they have slashers. Get slashers and guys that can put the ball on the floor and get to the hoop and you will draw fouls. That simple.
Wafer barely got any touches in the fourth. I was really anxious to see him produce with the ball in hand. But they never ever fed him the ball appropriately.
you dont think shooting 3X's asamny free throws as the opposing team has a big impact on the final score? as opposed to what, exactly? b/c according to my primitive math, the lakers were given the opportunity to score 16 additional points via free throws. i'm not going to blame the refs for the loss, b/c truth be told we had our chances down the stretch regardless... but saying things like officiating doesn't have "that big an impact on the final score" is patently false
The lakers wern't SLASHING. Kobe was jump shot,jump shot,jump shot. Pau wasn't doing anything, Bynum had 1 rebound the whole game and a few jump hooks. Lamar odom wasn't driving to the basket,ariza made a few threes and got some steals for lay ups. WHERE WAS THIS SLASHING Brooks drove into the lane wafer drove into the lane Rafer drove into the lane Yao was always in the paint with 2 and 3 guys on him landry was under the basket getting hacked the whole game The lakers weren't the agressive team going to the basket other than kobe there whole game was softttt passive and non agressive. I have no idea where this so called SLASHING was last night that you witnessed. The lakers are overrated and softtt and come playoff time we should be able to handle these dudes. They cannot handle Yao and I think with ron and a agressive Tracy we will be able to beat them in a 7 game series. All i saw was kobe last night.
Last 4 free throw attempts came because Rockets were forced to foul, one free throw came on a technical foul from Yao and another came from a defensive 3 second violation So 18 free throws to lakers compared to 7 (Rockets shot a technical off Kobe) isn't that staggering now is it?
and 1 of the rockets' ft's came from a kobe tech to end the first half and yada yada yada solid post though, professor
With all due respect, that's total Bull Crap, which you have come up with a lot lately, very unfortunately. That play you talked about so many times, was NOT by design, and it was evolved to that stage. Kobe with the ball has nowhere to go, Yao was right in front of him. Kobe lowered his shoulder and forcefully bumped into Yao. Yao wasn't trying to act or anything, but was knocked off (yes, he's not good at balancing; yes, he's no Shaq or Dream). Refs rewarded Kobe's foul and punished Yao's playing basketball, because (whatever reason). Yao wasn't trying to draw chargers, he was there to play defense. What's your suggestion? What will your "dream leader" in your imagination do in that case? Yield aside, and use incredible athleticism to block Kobe from behind? What should he do? I guess you share the opinion of lots of people, including all refs - that being 7'6 is indeed a crime.
i think the refs had a poor game, but if you look at the fact that their three best players had 20 of the free throws, and that they are aggressive players, you will see why there is a disparity. wafer was aggressive but he made everything and they weren't quick enough to foul him when he went to the hole. landry went to the line 5 times, same as odom. blame the refs, but also blame our lack of attack mentality. on the flip side, scola was aggressive defensively, which usually doesn't, and last night didn't, get the refs benefit of doubt. take away the bad calls on rockets aggressive d and the free throws would have been more equitable.
If the game had been in LA, the Lakers would've had 40 free throws. We should consider ourselves lucky that the refs even allowed us to be in the game
I would have liked to hear Adelman talk about this in the press conference though. Someone needs to start standing up for the terrible officiating on Yao. DD
Bad officiating was definitely going on last night. We were still in the game so it made last nights loss not so bad for me. On to the next game.
When you have a 16 free throw attempt difference, there is something definitely wrong with that. Can the other team really be attacking the basket that much more? I mean come on, Yao had only one free throw attempt (technical), your telling me Yao didn't get fouled the whole game. Stern is a douche and so are the refs. Anyone that can not see the finals playing out right now is just being ignorant. O yea we were playing at home. LOL. So much for the home calls.
so you're entitled to more free throws because you play at home? Yao was taking running and falling hooks all night long and had a couple of dunks, that was it. And thats why he had only 1 free throw attempt.
leebigez, you've already been called out for generalizing. stop doing it. this is not about centers who take charges, the Utah Jazz or anything else. It is specific to last nights game. i was at the game, i have seats very close to the action, the refs were a HUGE part of the game last night and there was a HUGE disparity in the way the two teams were called. whether or not LA normally has more slashers or not has nothing to do with last night's game in particular, or its huge FT disparity. Scola's first foul was for playing tough post-up defense on Gasol. This may have been the first foul of the game. All Scola did was body Gasol up a lot. Yao gets bodied up to this degree every play, if not more so. None of those fouls are called. Derek Fisher gets to run into people and have fouls called on them and only stops when he is finally whistled for playing like a pansy. Kobe, especially in the first half, got a ton of phantom calls. But to top what should be obvious to your own eyes, the stats don't back up the argument. Both teams played hard. Both teams had 9 offensive rebounds. The Rockets had more steals, which often lead to fouls on the opposing team, etc. Both teams had 50 points in the paint. Both teams had a similar number of shot attempts. Etc, etc. Yet, Yao's technical FT aside, until Rafer's two bricks at the end, only 1 player on our team had any FT attempts. Frankly, I'd dare you to see how many boxscores you can find where only 3 players on the team shoot FT's the whole game. But dig even deeper, get rid of all technical FT's and I dare you to find ANY boxscore, where for 47.5 minutes, only 1 player on a team has shot FTs. My guess, you won't find but one or two per year, if that. It doesn't matter how either team is playing, it's just something that's not really a possibility, given the rules of the game and the way it is played. Seriously, go find those box scores, please! The fact that this happened at home makes it that much more ridiculous. None of it negates the Rockets own issues. Rafer's inability to hit a clutch layup. Rick's inability to ever double team a hot player. Yao's inabililty to get going again once he's been taken out of his game by whatever factor. The lack of size in the front court when Yao goes out. Aaron Brooks sudden nervousness with his own game...whatever. But that's not the point of this thread.
You know, it's one thing for all of us to sit here and complain on a message board that nobody but Rockets fans reads, but what are the Rockets supposed to do? I have never hidden my pure and utter hatred for David Stern and his crew of mafioso, and this is one of the biggest reasons why. The second anybody even so much as squeaks out of turn, he slaps a hefty fine on them, and makes sure they never open their mouths again. The guy is worse than Bud Selig and I'll tell you why. I truly believe that Bud Selig sucks out of pure stupidity and ignorance....David Stern though is TOO smart for his own good. He understands what's at stake, and he makes sure that his agendas are always met.
