I think what they do to T-mac and Scola is what I have problems with most. The different looks that T-mac got were ridiculous, hand checking at the perimeter, no calls on the drives. Scola gets mugged several times and no calls. I swear to God I always see Okur go over the back to get his rebounds. Its just the lack of calls. They drew heaps of fouls off us, especially driving to the basket. We just don't get that type of respect either.
The refs gave both teams a fair shake. We both got away with some calls and non-calls. Mostly both teams had a handful of non-calls. Just that the Kirilenko travesty in Game 2 seems to stand out most cause it basically robbed us of at least an opportunity to win a game. Otherwise it was fair enough. The Jazz will not get away with that kinda play against the Lakers. The entire Jazz team are about to get the Yao Ming treatment from the refs. The refs will give LA every call and more. David Stern and his goonie refs will take control of this series very early. A lot of us are gonna be pissed when we see Kobe going to the line 20+ times while getting the same(maybe less cause he has better teammates available) treatment as T-Mac who would only see 5-7 attempts.
Refs favored Jazz most of the time. Not the one where we were blown out. It just seems like during the play-offs, there are more bad calls. Rafer Alston does make a big difference to our team. he played pretty good during the play-offs. Too bad he got injured.
Scola and Landry both got a ton of "maybe next year, ROOKIE" non-calls. I don't think the refs caused the Rockets to lose the series. Some better shooting and rebounding and better luck with injuries would have allowed them to win. I just agree with Van Gundy's statement that the Jazz are rewarded for daring the refs to kill the tv ratings by blowing the whistle multiple times per play. It's not the right way to play basketball and it gets on my nerves, not just in the Rockets/Jazz series but in every other playoff series where it's going on, too (e.g., the Wizards being allowed to nearly murder LeBron).
Other than the foul on Scola at the end of game 2 which clearly hurt the Rockets, I think there were plenty of bad calls both ways, but I don't think the Refs favored the Jazz. We were just outmanned. Too many rookies, not enough offense. There is no shame in losing this series. I'm proud of these guys just like 99% of this board is.
Where are you getting these stats? Is there a way to compare regular season vs playoff foul averages among all teams? Maybe regular season foul rates don't always predict outcomes in the playoffs?
Fans of losing teams generally whine the most. I suspect that if you looked at the Jazz forums during last year's series againt the Spurs you'd see a lot of complaining about unfair treatment.
The other thing that I am sure has been mentioned already is the fact that we nearly matched the Jazz in fouls called against us. If you take the entire NBA regular season as a trend, the Jazz were far away leading the league in fouls called, and we were near the bottom. Then the playoffs start, and we end up magically matching the Jazz in terms of fouling their players all over the court. Something doesn't seem right there, we definitely didn't seem like the aggressors save for a couple of games. I don't think your theory holds up under scrutiny, Will...
I keep hearing this argument. The number of fouls you commit is not independent of the opponent faced. It is a function of both your propensity to foul, the opponent's ability to draw fouls, and the pace of the game. The Rockets were one of the worst teams in the league in drawing fouls, particularly after Yao went down. And the Jazz were the best team in the league at drawing fouls. Further, the pace slowed down for the Jazz when playing against the Rockets so there were less possessions in which to commit fouls. Taking that context into account, the disparity in fouls called for both teams compared to their regular season makes perfect sense.
I remember a a foul called on Korver, instead of Williams, which was clearly a foul commited by Williams against B. Jackson, if I'm not mistaken. This was on a fast break, and even though we got a foul call, it was on Korver, who didn't even touch Jackson. Williams can't get into foul trouble. It was apparent to me that Scola can get mugged under the basket on a shot attempt, and no calls are made. On the defensive end, Scola dare not touch anybody. Scola was prone to getting two quick fouls early, as was Deke (game 6). Deke gets whistled twice on one trip down the court and has to ride the pine, due to Boozer making contact under the hoop. Scola makes the same contact under the hoop on Boozer, and it's just a bad shot and turnover. Whatever.
And Jazz fans would be able to point out all the missed calls that went against them too. There's always going to be questionable or just bad calls against both teams. When they go against you, they stand out much more than when they go against the other team. Particularly when you lose.
Durvasa, its not the bad calls that count, its WHEN. Yes it evens up, but often times its the last bad call that counts. Regardless of what happened the previous 47 minutes, when the bad call comes in that last minute, its very hard to overcome it. Especially when possessions change or what not on said bad/nocall. Do you remember any calls/nocalls going the Rockets way in the last minute of a game that they won?? Because I can remember one or two in two of the Jazz wins. I will say though that the officiating was better overall as the series wore on. One can only wonder if the Refs had been calling the McGrady penetration hand checks(which could have been called on every other play that T-Mac drove the entire series) for the whole series what might have been. Who knows, maybe this will be the start of a new trend that will get the Jazz into playing a more honest defense.
All good points you made. But I still have one problem... It's referee inconsistency. It's the biggest thing I've whined about. It's not about the jazz getting calls at one end of the floor that the Rockets don't; it's about not calling instances of major contact and calling touch fouls elsewhere. I don't care if the refs are going to allow a series to be physical or if they're going to force 40s ball. What I DO care about is that they're consistent on it. The NBA as a whole has terrible officiating. Of the big 3, it's by FAR the worst refereed. This isn't an anti-Rockets thing; this is a major problem with the NBA that NEEDS to be fixed *cough*Mark Cuban*cough*.
that AK flop call was terrible... the referees helped us "make the series"???? hell NO!!! our rockets earned it. overall it was fairly officated, but it could be better.
On the layups I remember the analysts (Rick Carlisle? now there is a Houston homer for you ) mentioning the Jazz would not allow any layups or putbacks by our rebounders. And that was pretty much the dirty truth - slap bam slam etc and oh yes, no calls. So our rebounders when they did get the ball learned to quickly just throw it back out. Amazingly looking at the full series stats we were dead on with Jazz of free throw attempts, makes and % - not enough diff to talk about - so they sucked too. If this is the way it is going to be then we need an Oakley to split Boozer and Okur in half. Artest?
