Officiating.

I guess your ass didn't watch the whole game... Again quit looking at the box score and the damn game yourself instead of yapping away.

 

Nah. I know it's the classy thing to say yeah whatever, we got outplayed but the game wasn't officiated evenly. Just because the free throws are even doesn't automatically mean we didn't get fouled/deserve more or that possibly SA even deserved less. We were the more aggresive team driving in and we were getting called for the most ticky-tack bull****, especially Harden's 4th and 5th foul. How does Duncan get away with so many offensive 3s too?

 

Wanted to paste this here as well. I am furious how the flow was forcefully changed in Spurs' favor last night.

Before some of you point to things we could have done better, let me say this. Yes, we could have played better and done certain things better. However, that has no relation with things like:

- Our bigs getting disabled by foul trouble.
- Duncan being protected and not going into foul trouble (He should have ended the game with at least 5 fouls, including the hook they didn't call in the first half).
- Harden getting his 5th for no ****ing reason at the most crucial moment.

Now feel free to criticize the rotations and what else we could have done differently. Because you know, you have so many options when the refs just take your players out.

 

we lost this game because they had Duncan and we did not.

 

I am glad I did not see this game but it should not matter whether we played bad or not, or win or lose. The Minnesota game we won despite of it and now we lost partly because of it. Both obviously had some very questionable calls and the referees tried their best to give the opponent the advantage. There is no doubt that referees bet on games and can look at the odds which consciously or unconsciously influences their decision making. It is also a fact all crews call more favourably towards veterans and star players than youngsters and lesser known ones.

Now what the reason was for games being called a certain way is also going to be guess work but I am 100% sure there was something wrong with officiating during the Minnesota game. The reason is we got called for small things and every flop was rewarded, so they had a FT advantage despite neither team being very aggressive nor very physical. For every game being called in a team's favour you can also always tell by how it is in the 4th quarter: they make up for it. Most of the time teams have been disadvantaged enough that even by calling some ticky tack fouls, a team is not going to come back and win. The comeback itself is very positive because people find it exciting thus more people will watch games and portray an image of parity.

In the Minnesota game, this exactly what happened and the fact we won it was a miracle even with some calls going our way in the 4th. This change of calling fouls on the advantaged team is not always continuous so at a certain crucial point referees might still decide the outcome in the favour of them. Many times though it seems they feel like they've helped enough. What happened in Minnesota was just that and it was too obvious, where in the 4th they did not fall for the flops and we got some calls that should've been non-calls like the push off on JJ / Shved.

Referees can never be solely blamed for a loss but don't be oblivious to the fact they have major impact on the outcome and the favouring of a certain team still happens too often.

 

Officiating was bad (I still don't know how that one Parson's charge was actually a charge), but we were also outplayed especially in the post. Timmy made Aldrich his b**** (but he's done that to a lot of people).

 

not really. we just turned it over too much and bricked to many freebies and in the end Pop crushed us with his strategy. =(

i hope the spurs go to the finals though rather than okc.

 

I watched the game. We got outplayed by a better team. Whining about officiating in a game like this is pointless.

 

The Spurs outplayed the Rockets in so many areas that blaming the refs just seems silly. So many other things you can point to.

 

The box score does not show how poor the officials are. That is the last place you want to look. Here are some ways the officials influence the outcome of the game:

• Calling the game tight on one end (forcing the defenders to give space).
• Calling every touch foul for one team's best FT shooters.
• Choosing to only call fouls on average to below average free throw shooters and passing them the ball in a way that they catch it weird to make them miss.
• Putting the other team's best players or players they need due to injuries/match up issues in foul trouble.

There are many other ways that don't show up on the box score that are difficult for most to understand. I have a simple method that allows me to only watch the last 5 minutes when we lose and watch the games we win. It works perfect.

 

I have never blamed refs, but after the last two games, I am starting to have my doubts. Blatant foul by Duncan on Harden which would have been his 3rd foul and he would have come out of the game, but instead they gave it to Splitter. Ridiculous 5th foul on Harden, you think Kobe or Durant would get that bogus call?

BTW, did anyone see the end of the JAzz-CLipplers game? Ridiculous ticky-tack foul on CP3, hits two FT, game over.

 

Also, there a few fouls when it was given to a questionable player. I remember two distinctly: Harden drives to the the hole, gets fouled by Duncan (who had 3 fouls at the time IIRC) and they called the foul on Green, and the second time the exact same thing but they called the foul on Splitter. If we got Duncan into foul trouble, then the game changes completely.

Disclaimer: I only watched it once (can't watch replays where I stream the games), but I do remember a few people in the game thread making similar observations.

 

Officiating was garbage! Spurs constant flopping really got to me, especially tiago. If the NBA don't send some warnings their way I will be furious. People can say we lost because we played poor d and yeah it's true we should played better but these bs calls were momentum shifters and they cost us.

 

Let's see why the refs call the game in favor of the Spurs...
1. The Spurs are former champs
2. The Spurs were playing at home
3. The Spurs have Duncan

And it doesn't make things any better when the Rockets played terrible defense, left wide open shots everywhere, and the Spurts made most of them.

 

The one called on Splitter was a foul by Kawhi before Harden even got to Duncan (he raked him across the arm)

 

We turned it over and bricked it because of their defense. They clearly scouted us and made adjustments. Honestly, they really squashed us defensively in the 4th qtr. It was brilliant defense.

They really took away Lin & Harden's key strengths by anticipating the penetration. The lack of a scoring power forward killed us as it allowed them to at times put one defender guarding BOTH our big men. They exposed us for what we are - a great perimeter team with no anchor in the middle.

Also we are younger and made mistakes on that. The spurs played with more poise and basketball IQ.

They beat us. It was a good game, and we put up a good fight - but they are the better team right now - it's clear as day to anyone who understands a lick about basketball.

But time is on our side. Especially if we can find a big that can score without an assist from Lin.

 

We all can see that Stars get the benefit of some calls. L.James didn't have a foul called on him for a 254 minutes of play.

That why as Rockets fan we need to try to get as many Rockets into the All-Star game. All four Rockets.

 

Why don't NBA has instant replay for catching flops? Instead of punishing the player with fine. How about treating it as a technical foul? If you get two, you get instant rejected. That would sure stop the flopping acts.

 

Flopping

Something like a 10 game suspension, and $100 K fine would probably put a stop to all that flopping.