Harden & Howard combine for 5 FTA and Durant with 20 FTA.

To say KD got the superstar calls tonight would be an understatement.

ETA: Polar opposite for Dwight.

 

With Ibaka and Perkins in the paint I'd say that they protected the area from them going to the rim IMO. Durant got his phantom calls so yea that's how he got his 20 FTA

 

The league gave us the Thunder on the 4th game in 5 nights twice in a row for a reason. Not surprising the refs joined the Thunder in the 2nd half when it looked like we were daring to defy our schedule loss.

 

All the superstars get superstar calls, but KD abuses the contact fouls like no other player. He's the king and made Harden his apprentice.

The irony of the situation is that we're feeling what every other team that plays us feels when Harden gets 15+ FTs.

 

Durant gets fouled alot because people can't defend him.

 

Considering how many freethrows both Howard and Harden regularly get, I think it's difficult for us to complain.

That said, the refs were rubbish in the second half yesterday.

 

Both Howard and Harden are UNDERSIZED in their position.

Their don't have advantages in half court offenses against other elite team.
They need to run more because they are faster.

 

How is harden undersized at all, he would be one of the bigger 2 guards in the game

 

To be fair, most of Howard's FTAs come from the opponent intentionally fouling him so that he doesn't get an easy bucket at the rim. He gets hit alot where they don't call it, but they're more than willing to call the same amount of contact as a foul against him.

 

Yeah Harden is not undersized.

He is the best SG in the game but even he isn't going to beat good defenses on his own. He can do it against weaker teams and cut through them. But well organised defenses with strong rim protectors know how to stop him and they do.

He needs more screens and off ball play/cutting to score efficiently in these settings.

 

Agreed. He is strong as hell and when he bullies other players in the post, they just flop. Refs fall for it every time which is frustrating. You'd think he'd get more superstar protection.

But maybe the refs feel that he is getting enough free throws already with the intentional fouls so they are reluctant to give him more? Because then he's have a crap load of FT attempts, maybe more than any other player in the game, if they called him fairly. I think if he hits more FTs other teams will foul him intentionally less and he'll end up getting more 'normal' calls.

 

Given we have harden I don't think we can complain about FTs. The NBA needs to cut down number of FT for all players. Make buckets.

 

My problem with that is Harden's FTs often come from him driving and being aggressive, and I agree the refs call too many fouls on those drives, some he deserves for sure.
Durant last night was getting to the free throw line on hand checks on a dribble past the 3pt line and shotting because of the bonus.
Down low, we have Thunder post players just holding Howard for 30 seconds and getting double fouls and double Ts instead.

 

To be objective, I am pretty sure pretty much EVERY team that plays against us says the same about Harden.

 

yeah...Houston has no right to complain. Houston #1 with 1298 FTA. Clippers are a distant second at 1154 FTA. The Thunder? #5 with 1001 FTA.

 

if we can learn lessons from this..i'd rather be exposed and lose now than in april/may.

now its a quesiton of whether we can learn and grow from this disappointing loss.

 

In other news harden & howard combine for 5 fta and nine thunder players combine for 5 fta.


OKC attempts .5 more fts than their opponent on average.
Houston attempts 8.9.

If the jersey has OKC and 35 isn't the number, refs don't care.