Saying that the NBA is scripted like the WWE is going too far. I think they do put a nudge here and there. Whether it is intentional or subconscious in the refs' minds is up for debate. But referee bias is real. Statistical evidence has been chronicled. The NBA is "corrupt" in the sense that they know the problem of bad officiating but by and large choose to sweep it under the rug. Their main goal is to protect the officials rather than to address and fix the issues. It's the same thing like institutions protecting their abusive officials. Maybe we need a #metoo movement exposing abuses by bad refs.
Yes. I know its corrupt. Was not my point. My point is about the notion that it ALWAYS has been. I disagree with that and I cited a rather obvious example.
Why?!?! Because just like LEOs there is a "Thin Blue Line" that means they always support their own no matter if wrong or right. A "line" that no one will cross, a "line" that bad LEOs and Refs can hide behind, a "line" that will protect them at all costs.
Because Ralph Sampson hit an improbable shot that let's be honest was out of this world, unexpected, miracle! You don't believe me, watch the "oh ****, what do we do now look" from the baseline ref. dude is literally frozen and has no clue on how to react.
The point is the refs were not calling a lot of fouls. They were letting them play. Free Throw Attemps HOU/GSW Game 1: 21/25 (Loss) Game 2: 27/22 (Win) Game 3: 13/18 (Loss) Game 4: 27/14 (Win) Game 5: 32/23 (Win) Game 6: 19/17 (Loss) Game 7: 22/14 (Loss) We lost games where GSW attempted more free throws or almost even. We won games when more free throws in significant numbers were attempted by the Rockets. The exception was game 7. The refs were just not making calls. Period. For those 10 FTA that you all are whining about, the refs could have easily called just as many against us in the 1st and 2nd quarter. You can't complain about the missed calls all while ignoring the calls that could have been counted against us. The stats are there. Fouls were being called on both sides of the floor. Fouls were missed on both sides of the floor. And im not disagreeing the missed calls likely favored GSW over the Rockets. But not to the epic proportion some of you are making it out to be. I will also acknowledge that we tend to get more FTA because our team focuses too much on drawing a foul instead of trying to get the ball in the basket. Nobody wants to watch that ****. Dont cry when the refs start turning a blind eye to these blatant attempts to draw a foul. These antics are right up there with flopping, fouling players who can't shoot their free throws and the frequent 'hail mary' fouling in the final two minutes. Our team is too good to do that crap. Lastly, you are absolutely wrong on the free point attempts. You can not win against a contender shooting 15% on 44 3 point attempts, especially when your opponent is shooting 41%. That is utterly idiotic. This type of logic is why we kept shooting bricks instead of focusing on a more effective way of scoring when our 3's aren't hitting. All of that said, this team played their hearts out. Ive seen way too many games where players never mentally checked into the game and still squeaked out the win. We played like champs and we bet on strategies that did not pan out. We were 10 points away from the championship. That is a great feat in itself.
Well we had to win that but also 3 others. We beat them 4 games in a row. That would not be allowed to happen today. Too much $$ at stake.
Stay tuned: BBALLBREAKDOWN in his latest recap vid of Game 7 mentioned how he was in the process of making a video about the missed calls...
Some flaws commentary about hand checking being a "major theme". Just because he touches curry doesnt make it a hand check. In fact, under Bzdelik's defense philosophy (Talk it, Switch it, Grab it, etc.), the rocket players all must touch their opponents upon switching (grab it). Granted, Anderson's hand definitely lingers in some of those clips but in no way impedes Curry's movements. Also, not all bad calls/no calls can be weighed the same as more of the ones against Rockets directly lead to "shaved" points such as the FTs, called off 4 pt play, moving screen, bad goaltend etc. T
The 7/44 shooting cost us the series not a Deep State ref conspiracy -- there were poor calls that hurt us, however GS fans can make the same argument. Re-read the thread title if you're having understanding the subject -- to be clear the game wasn't rigged -- we lost due to our historically bad shooting.
If you want to pretend the refs swallowed their whistles close to equally for both teams, be my guest. But I disagree that the refs didn’t have a profound impact on the outcome of game 7. Sure, the Rockets got away with a foul here or there in the first half. One such example is when PJ Tucker fought like a madman for a loose ball under the bucket and got a putback layup out of it. But that simply makes up for Eric Gordon getting mugged on a drive in the 2nd half that wasn’t called. However, the refs actually took a potential 10 points off the board for the Rockets on three plays. Two no calls where even Reggie Miller acknowledged Harden was fouled on three point shots, and the four point play in the 2nd half, which was a momentum changing play. Then you have the Jordan Bell moving screen which gave the Warriors three points and the lead. That’s four non calls that cost the Rockets 14 points (the Rockets got a bucket on the four point play possession, but Klay made a transition corner three after one of the Harden non calls in the first half). If those plays are called correctly and nothing else changes, the Rockets win by five, despite shooting 7 of 44 from three. None of those non calls were close to debatable either. Also, I’d hope the Rockets have a ton more free throws than the Warriors. They attacked the basket much more, whereas the Warriors shot primarily jumpers. And who cares if the Rockets style isn’t aesthetically pleasing? If defenders foul them, they need to be called.
Another reason why this cannot be allowed to stand with the same usual bullshit is this was a CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. The Rockets won an NBA Championship last night with the more than 22 point swing. The NBA knew it was going to happen and made sure with game 6 and 7 that didn't happen. The team quit in game 6 once they knew it was rigged but that did not happen last night. On the internet in all of the forums, the truth was out there. As soon as everyone got on TV or in official print media they stay away from it because of money. Everyone else will let it go. We can't. This is why you get LBJ and you leave the NBA a f**kin' wasteland. They won't rig games against LBJ but they sure as hell did against the Rockets. The Cavs wouldn't have won a single game against us without CP3 and they will get a gentlemen's sweep against the Warriors to make it look good for ratings. I saw the Finals last night. Last night also proved that if you want to live the rest of your life like last night or like the Yao/McGrady years and say we gave it a good shot you can but screw that ****. Winning is ALL that matters. Without it you disappear, you don't matter, your not relevant, and everyone laughs at you. I would rather be the bad guy than let everyone else crap all over me. Only a dynasty gets their attention. Create a ridiculous one now so that they never allow them again. For Hardens bad night he had 32 and if not screwed would have won the game and had 45. Remember that legacy game we were all hearing about. Hard to have a legacy when someone f*&king steals it from you and they are not even wearing the right uniform. If last night doesn't give you all perspective I don't know what will.
All you're doing is exposing the fact you either a) didn't watch the game or b) watched the game but were picking your nose and doing other miscellaneous things. This isn't about boxscore numbers. I don't care what the FT disparity was. When a official is standing right in front of a player and a guy slaps down on his arm, how is that not a foul? Take make matters worse, it happened consecutive times. Everybody in the arena saw it but the refs. A foul is a foul. We are a team that drives to the rim alot. If we're not hitting 3's & the refs swallow their whistles when we drive, then we will lose. Again, I don't care about the stupid percentages. We have won COUNTLESS games where we didn't shoot well. The only stat I look at is the fact we lost by 7, and CLEARLY got robbed of 16+ pts. Not to mention the points GS were illegally rewarded thru goaltends, illegal screens etc.
4 paragraphs of nothing. Check out points in the paint for the series. The team that has more points in the paint should almost always have more free throws. The fact that free throws were roughly equal is extremely telling for the reason that a jump shooting team is drawing as many fouls as a team that is constantly attacking the basket.
They weren't roughly equal. We had 8 more FTA's. I get it. You think we should have had 20 more FTA for the missed calls. And it doesn't matter. We would have still lost the game. Driving to the basket for a layup is fine. Driving to the basket and trying to hook the defenders arm instead of the hole, which really amounts to an offensive foul, is just dumb ball. Our team is very talented. This team relied on two things and both failed them; One is expect the refs not to swallow their whistle with driving and foul and the second is to expect to hit a reasonable amount of free throws.