Stephen A Smith mentioned Harden’s 50 point triple double just to bring up the fact that he has gotten around 30 freethrows against the Lakers. They showed the clips and in none of those did Harden or Chris every swipes their arms up for a foul. Yet he is calling for the refs to stop intervening with the “flow” of the game. The clips clearly show fouls. For one you the shooter needs to land and Hart clearly took Harden legs and space when he landed. Tyson Chandler Fouled Harden with his body that was clearly a foul too. And where Lebron has his arms behind it was just to be a troll and so that the media would talk about just this. Cp3 only did a swipe up once and he barely got to the free throw line. Lebron fouls him too when Harden scored a 3 on his face yet no call was made. We need to do a compilation of all the fouls Harden gets and all the none calls he doesn’t get yet still getting foul. Espn is sprouting all this so that the refs will stop calling fouls on Harden. Yet this year Harden has barely gotten any calls now he gets a game where the refs do sort of play and this dude is complaining about it. Did he forget that the Lakers and rockets were pretty even at half in terms of freethrows. And that the refs gave Nene two techs in less than 30 seconds. why didn’t espn make a segment on all those none calls in the finals where Harden was getting fouls and fouls yet no calls were made.
I've honestly never seen so much whining about how the officials called a regular season game. It's very hard to just ignore it as a coincidence but it always feels like whenever Harden gets calls the entire NBA universe (fans of every other team and the media) makes a big fuss about it.
Here's my take on last night's game: the media/refs/nba etc. wanted LA to win this game. This was especially evident by the announcing. Chris Webber who is usually fair was straight dogging on Harden and how he 'baits' the refs etc. But then as the game went on and Harden was clearly in god mode, the refs decided they couldn't gift this one to LA and Harden's insane #s were a good enough story to allow Houston the win.
The Lakers were justified for being angry at all the calls Harden was getting after they obviously fouled him? Oh really... when Kobe dropped 52 on the Mavs to go along with 27 free throw attempts, Laker fans loved that...but when Harden goes to the line 19 times which isn’t even that outlandish for a 50 point game, it’s a huge problem...
ESPN news: Steve A Smith has declared that Lakers will beat Rockets in the playoffs two weeks ago. You can find it in Youtube.
steven A Smith and Max kellerman are just puppets. They are told what to say at times. one guy has one stance, and the other has the other stance. I wonder what their true opinnions are at times. They are job is to stir drama, and since the lakers are one of the biggest markets with lebron, one of the has to side L.A.
ESPN's Around the Horn just did a segment on the refs and the whole panel surprisingly gave a collective STFU to the Lakers..
Well Stephen, when the defender DOES have their arms straight out and not in the offensive players space, its not called! The NBA fans have a systematic understanding of what is and s not a foul...
They were literally on PTI just now with the title "Officials too protective of Rockets" Highlights Harden gets way too many calls Lebron gets hacked a lot and probably should get more calls Chris Paul also, probably gets too many calls this is a legit story and Silver needs or is looking into it... Seriously. WTF is this? No one says a thing when an easy Goaltending call makes us lose a game essentially and all the bad calls in that Pistons game...but the Rockets beat the Lakers once, get a pinch of hope, and all the media has talked about is how the Rockets just get way too many calls.
i would say it too if they paid me millions of dollars to stir up viewership Clutchfans LOVES MILLIONAIRE SPORTS TV PERSONALITIES
Where was all this outrage when guys like Kobe, AI, D-Wade, Paul Pierce, and Gilbert Arenas used to routinely spend like half the game at the free throw line?
It's just how the media works. They have a superstar hierarchy. Harden is behind Lebron. Had Harden done this to the Pacers or something there's not even a peep about it, at least not when it comes to the refs. Just Harden vs Oladipo and Harden winning the battle. Since it was against Lebron though they have to create some excuse and narrative as to how/why he outdueled Lebron.
Today is truly surreal. The Rockets are fighting to get back into contention. The Lakers look to be a playoff contender, but now the whole conversation is about Harden getting calls after a 50pt triple double and dunking on the 20 miles of Crenshaw Blvd. Lebron is crying to Silver to change the rules to further neuter Harden's brilliance. Harden isn't even first in FT's this year because they are disparately and deliberately not calling his fouls..
It was middle of the ground. Rachel of course tried to skirt the middle while passively hating on Harden. Pippen is a classic b****. Amin said they were fouls. It was a good segment overall IMO.
We’re not even in the playoff picture and we get blamed ahahaahahahaha oh the media ****ing always breaks my rockets heart sigh
