Lazy and untrue. At least 90% of the time James Harden gets a call it is a clear foul. He knows how to create contact that leaves the refs no choice but to call it. He is the best in league history at exploiting this. Younger Kevin Martin was kind of a pioneer of this, but Harden has taken it to another level. It's definitely valid to hate him for this tactic. But to suggest he (a player for the Houston Rockets) somehow gets preferential treatment from the refs is ridiculous.
Sadly - based on how the game was officiated - if anyone had gotten in Westbrook's face they would have been ejected, suspended, fined, and possibly sent to prison, sent to the D-league, or exiled from the USA.
I've said this before as others have echoed as well. The word is out on Dwight, and it's just unfair. The way to play him is to constantly hack him as hard as you possibly can to send him to the line, play as rough as you can against him, throw elbows, get physical..etc. THEN, the very moment that Dwight actually defends himself, you flop. That's it. That's how the NBA has decided to defend Dwight. How the refs don't see this...I just don't know. As much bashing as there is to Dwight being "Soft", I give him a lot of credit for all the brutal hacks he's taken, and has yet to end someones season, or career by really retaliating and punching someone. One thing that does upset me though...is that this team..including the JB, acts as if nothing happened last night. Howard gets destroyed, then unfairly ejected. Brewer gets sent into the first row after being basically hit in the face on a lay up with no call, yet not ONCE did anyone do a thing about it in retaliation. Kanter had easy lay up after easy lay up, Westbrook had clear drives to the basket. Why not hit Kanter the way they hit Dwight? How JB didn't even get a tech in this game is beyond me. I would have loved to see him get a tech or even ejected. His teammates were playing as hard as they could and were getting flat out screwed out of a game. The players need to show they have Dwights back. JB needs to show the players he has their back. Neither happened last night.
I agree from the way things were going last night. Don't want them to get physical with him. Just maybe a "Hey, that was f'd up" to show some kind of camaraderie, got your back type thing. To me, at worst, that person would've gotten ejected, or more likely just a tech. At the end of the day, a clear message would be sent to both teams, that we got our team-mates back.
So the US can oust the entire head of FIFA but doesn't bother to look at its own leagues. Makes sense.
Agreed. I'm primarily a hockey fan, so I think there is a 100% need for team camaraderie, but I despise NBA refs who typically exacerbate problems instead of solving them.
I had the pleasure (sic) to watch this game on NBA TV. The refs, as said to the nearing of redundancy (is that even a possibility from last nite???), were putrid. And yet better than the OKC announcing crew. Fun stuff...
The same James harden that gets called for flagrants fouls on offensive drives now. The memo has been sent to officials regarding James. He offensive fouls on him this year are just weird. Some of them come late in the game when it should be a "and 1". James gets fouled more than anybody, so miss me with that bullsh!t.
Does anyone happen to have videos of Dwight getting ejected and/or Brewer getting hit in the face with no call being called by our announcers? Would love to hear Bullards reaction to this. Or if someone who happened to be watching with the Rockets feed, if they could summarize it for me it would be greatly appreciated, and will rep.
When Westbrook threw the elbow at bev the ref was tempted to call a tech on Howard and a block on Brewer at the same time but he restrained himself. Is anyone going to say anything or has already said anything about the bs we watched last night?
Back in 2012. Not now. They even said that was the reason years ago. He took so many shots every night.
FYI you guys are defending the person that played at an MVP level last season and quit once the money came through. The truth will set you free
Ok, we get it you don't like the guy who is averaging 28/8/7 with 1 block, 1 steal while shooting 47% FG, 42% from 3, 94% from the FT with only 2 turnovers. The truth will set you free and Harden is beasting. You say that, but look at the very next play. Beverley took a simple foul, the obvious thing to do, and WB (the guy who just killed Brewer) throws an elbow at Bev, and they look at the replay to see if Bev was malicious in the way he came up and took the foul on WB. WB already got injured once on accident, but it was a supposedly dirty play, so the refs have an excuse to call bs on him. The fact is there was a malicious elbow thrown on the play and they completely ignored it. What Bev did was fine and they let it be a message, you can't even look like you're going to retaliate if we miss a hack-foul.
Those are the last 5 games for Harden. I don't wtf ISOball is talking about, but if that's quitting then please quit more.
Maybe if someone would piece together a clip of the last year or two of all the hard fouls against D12 that aren't called, vs. touch fouls they call on Howard, sort of like someone did for Harden's lack of defense, maybe something can be done. I doubt anything would change, but nothing else has worked. I really admire how much restraint Howard shows after all the crap said from Kobe and Durant considering what refs let them get away with. It's worth a shot.
