I'm in amazement that no one is complaining about the refs in this one. - There were 59 fouls whistled on both team and 69 free throws attempted. - There were 51 free throws made AND ONLY 66 FIELD GOALS MADE! - Five guys ended the game with 5 fouls each and five ended the game with 4 fouls each. That is astonishing. I HATE games that are refereed like this. I know the Rockets are prone to dumb fouls on occassion, but this was ridiculous. In case the refs didn't realize, this game is about the players. Let 'em freakin' play! NO ONE buys a ticket to watch a free-throw-shooting contest. Sheesh.
My contention is that scoring is down because whistles are up. There are so many stoppages of play that there is no rhythm to the beautiful ballet-like game of NBA basketball. Fouls and violations need to be called, or there would be big consequences. But not all fouls and violations need to be called, or called immediately. For example, in last nite's game a Rocket (Yao?) was called for Defensive 3-seconds -- while a Clip was shooting, and hitting! No basket. Foul shot (missed, I think). Probably a minute of stopped 'action'. Refs need to learn a cross between soccer-type 'advantage' calls and hockey rushes where the penalty is not called until the offensive team loses possession. Keep the game flowing. Scoring will rise. The games will once again be enjoyable to watch.
The server is too busy at the moment. Please try again later. Oh.... yea, anyway. I noticed that too, but hey I guess no one cares when we win about anything but "touches" or "points in the second half" or "freezing out." We were all hacked off by the ref's flagrant use of the whistle last night. We're just the silent ones... Waiting for the ruckus to die down so we can get a word in.
I kept rewinding the fouls on TIVO and looking at them. And actually, alot of the time, we did foul them. Some of them were ticky tack though. Ever since JVG has been emphasizing the zone more, Cato's weaknesses as a PF defender are being exposed. Dude just isnt quick enough on rotations, and he ends up fouling alot in trying to recover. He is averaging over 6 fouls per 48 this season. Also, the Clippers were relying so much on penetration. Especially Magette. He is so strong and physical, yet is suprisingly quick. When he gets inside, he cant help but get alot of foul calls.
let's face it. last night's game was ugly. the game was very physical and the referees have an obligation to make sure they keep the game under control.
I unfortunately didn't get a chance to watch it, but I have no doubt the refs called a horrible game. I haven't seen 'em call a decent game yet. Xiki, I kinda like to think of it more like a homeplate umpire. The rulebook states what's a ball & what's a strike. But the homeplate umpire kinda uses his discretion, and each ump has a little bit of a different strike zone. The key is for the umpire to call it both ways. If he's calling the inside corner a ball for one team, it's a ball for the other. And he doesn't take exception because it's Barry Bonds at the plate. Refs can let a little bit of pushing & shoving go on, but they better let it go on both sides of the court.
But this game had a lot of scoring, despite the whistles. Ideally what would happen would be that a more closely monitored game would have a deterrent effect, there would be les contact and wrestling matches and more scoring, like in the 80's. But it has to be implemented consistently, leaguewide, for it to happen. I don't know if it can, the quality of the officiating just varies too widely now, that's part of the problem with having 3 officials, with 3 sets of eyes you get more inconsistend calls from play to play. Example: the Golden State game was particularly bad in this regard. The officials were totally out of synch in the 4th period; one play a touch foul wold be called, the next would be a 3 man mauling with no call. The result: an ugly, ugly basketball game.
ok, on a serious note, what exactly are you complaining about? that there were too many fouls called last night? if so, ok fine. but you do realize that if they don't call those fouls, the scoring would actually decrease don't you? i mean, if i know i can punch you in the kidneys and get away with it, chances are i will, and chances are you won't score. scores in the nba will continue to plummet as defenses get more aggressive! the only way to battle that is to discourage defenses from molesting players, and that can only be done by calling a plethora of fouls...putting the fear of disqualification into the players. eventually, defenders will stop molesting offensive players as soon as they set foot in the paint. then you'll see nba scoring rise. that being said...we have a coach who preaches molestation, so we need to embrace it!!!
I agree Codell. I have not looked at the game again yet but my recollection was that the penetration was hurting Ming, Cato and JJ. The penetration hurt us more than it should because we were helping out when there was no real need to in alot of the cases. I just want them to call it when Ming is being killed in there.
There was ZERO suggestion on my part that the game was not fairly called. My point is that in 'today's' NBA the refs are blowing so many whistles (because there are three of them?) that games have no flow, and the players are stifled, suffocated, and frustrated. I want there to be an investigation of how to minimize calls while maintaining integrity and protection of players.
dude, the refs can only call the game the way it is played. why don't you investigate the strategy that the majority of NBA coaches believe wins games?
Didn't JVG's Knicks pay and have these kind of UGLY games? Rocket River . . . it *is* what you wanted. . . ..
OK, verse has busted out "molestation" and "pedophile" in the same thread...Did the Rockets hire Michael Jackson as an assistant coach?
I don't know about that. There were multiple airballs last night and I think Drobnak (sp?) actually hit the side of the backboard on one of his shots. Ug. Ly. I don't think the refs did a bad job last night. At least not any worse than usual. I just think the Clips were penetrating a lot and drawing a lot of fouls.
As long as the fouls are being called fairly evenly i guess people won't have much to complain about...
But the final score above league average was due to the massive FT attempts being made. So if it was another 86-79 game we wanted to see that's fine, but we can't celebrate the return of the offense if we don't want the cheap fouls being called. We might see more of this too, if the league wants to increase scoring and thus avoid the pummeling they are starting to receive in the press. Although our defense is winning games, our problem is that on offense we are still more finesse than power. Cato is power but you can't let him shoot, and MoT is, well, not powerful. Yao is still finesse. I actually think Yao gets hurt by the fact that the officials on most games let the game get physical as a nod to the defensive intensity JVG has us playing. See Dampier's repeated maulings. If Yao can somehow increase his power game, that will play into JVG's preferred style of officiated game, imo. The ticky-tack nature of last night's officating style resulted in a 18-point perfect performance in the first half for Yao, and perhaps not coincidentally, a great game for Steve.
