Yeah, I'm always bitter at the refs, BUT ... Anyone else notice in the 3rd period Dallas was in the penalty with about 9 minutes to go? Meantime I think Houston shot all of about 2 free throws in the 3rd period. Dallas went to the line about 14 or 15 more times than we did. Sure some of that was because of the lack of penetration and the lack of an inside game (we shot too many from the outside). But maybe, just maybe, our inside game & our penetration wasn't working 'cause we weren't getting the calls??? Yeah, I'm bitter at the refs. But at least Mobley didn't spend 1/2 the game staring 'em down after the no-calls. Credit JVG.
I think Craig Sager mentioned that the Mavs were pulling on Yao when Steve threw that ball out of bounds in the 4th, not to mention a few over the backs on Bradley... oh well...
I was at the game and thought it was called very fair in the 1st half but not in the second. Bradley was constantly laying full body on Yao Mings back with one arm over his should. Everytime a pass came into Yao Ming, Bradly went through him to tap the ball out. These were clear fouls. On top of that the refs were calling ticky tack fouls on other Rockets and not calling fouls against the Mavs when they were knocking our guys to the floor. One call that got me perticulary pissed was late in the 4th when one of our players (Cato I think) got back on defense and squared his shoulders up to Dirk with both feet firmly planted. He was clearly out of the restricted area and position had clearly been established. Dirk ran over him going to the basket and a defensive foul was called. I was pissed. It was that time that I yelled out "wrong call! get some glasses you moron!" As you might have guessed I drew a lot of stares from the Mavs fans that were around me. Anyway the officiating was pathetic in the second half.
The officiating was bad last night but that's what I've come to expect from refs these days when playing on the home floor of one of the western conference powers. BTW, I'm still waiting on the sophmore season respect that Yao is supposed to be getting from the refs.
Yeah well, frist of all, the refs are ruining the game of basketball. I mean you can't even breath on a guy without a foul being called. People want to criticize the players for not being able to shoot the ball which is contributing to low scores but I say - hey, the refs are out there calling the most ticky tacky bullsh1t fouls every other possession, you will rarely see a game that is actually flowing without a whistle being blown for more than 3 posessions. Its making the games no fun, man. Then you add up all the other stoppages of play, tv timeouts, coaches timeouts, numerous other bullcrap that stops the flow of the game, and what you get is all that side play with a little mix of actual game play for a few brief moments. All that makes it impossible for a player or team to get hot or in a rhythm. But the Dallas game is what you are talking about and you are right. That home court favoritism pisses me off. Hey your 6'1 and going to jump into 7'6 guy, go right ahead, we'll call the foul on the first bit of contact, we don't care if you intitiated it, and or stupid enough to take it right into a big man who is over a foot taller than you, you have the ball, and I want the drunk fans to applaud and apperciate my work, so you'll get the call. I think thats their thinking out there. its kind of disturbing to see the refs running around out there with their whistles in their mouths. I think they may actually freaking burp sometimes which causes their whsitles to blow. it also seems as if the refs feel they're not doing their job or earning their money if they go a few possession without blowing their whistles. Thats not good for the game. bottomline: whistle happy refs are having a negative effect on the game.
It seemed the Rox didn't play w/ with energy or aggression in the 2nd half also. Almost like they were perplexed at what to do with the zone Dallas threw at them. Usually the team that hustles and creates contact gets the majority of the calls. That being said, Yao very rarely seems to get benefit of calls. He is constantly pushed out and elbowed when trying to establish position. A clear NBA rule is that if the defender puts 2 hands on a player at any time it is an automatic foul. However, defenders push him out with both hands 95% of the possessions. Maybe the refs think it's ok to give defenders leeway b/c of his size. Butt then again if that were true, the Fakers wouldn't have 3 rings.
Yeah, I remember that Dirk play too. What really got me was the ref waiting 'til Dirk bricked it and we got the rebound, and THEN blew the whistle. I mean come on, we're already throwing the outlet pass and THEN you decide it's a foul??? If it wasn't a foul when he was shooting it, then it wasn't a foul when it bricked. It was Dirk, though, so I held my emotions in check. Then a couple of possessions later, they gave freaking Najera the same type of love -- wait 'til he misses it and we get the board, then blow the whistle on Cato. Next play down the court, Cato gets a little aggressive on offense ... and they call an offensive foul. Yeah, that ticked me off.
That was the exact play I was talking about. At that point I really did not care that I was sitting among the enamy I just could not contain my self. It was a horrible call. It was kind of typical of the officiating during the second half of the contest.
I watched the game from the Embassy Suites in Seattle Washington, and I could barely contain my contempt for the officials. They literally decided who was going to win last night. The Rocks defense was not that great, too much penetration by Nash...but the Refs were clearly on the home teams side last night. I mean come on 12 Freethrows for the Rockets versus 28 for the Mavs? Disgraceful. Yao gets beat up a lot without getting any calls. 2 hands in someone's back IS a foul. DD
