I'm sure it's been said before, I thought it was interesting watching game one of Lakers vs Utah that the Lakers were getting a lot more calls than we were, for a lot of the same stuff that we were getting. I dont think I ever remember Utah being in foul trouble during our series. So I checked out Utah's personal foul numbers in the box scores. Personal Fouls Against Utah Hou Series: Gm1 - 23, Gm2 - 20, Gm3 - 24, Gm4 - 22, Gm5 - 17, Gm6 - 25 (avg: 21.8) LA Series: Gm1 - 33, Gm2 - 30 (avg: 31.5) I'm not exactly ref blaming, but during our series their fouls are in the low to mid 20's, and for LA they are trending in the low to mid 30's. Are they really averaging 10 more fouls per game?? Maybe they didn't need to foul us? What's your take?
LA attacks more. LA is also more high profile. When Yao returns, Houston will have more players that draw fouls. Right now, it's pretty much T-Mac. Kobe draws contact, and so does Odom, and so does Pau. Offensive talent gets calls. Maybe LA gets more respect, but as much as the Lakers are going to the line, Utah is still getting away with a lot of shoving. I saw one possession where Kobe is just walking up court without the ball last night in the 4th quarter and Harpring elbowed Kobe 3 times to the upper chest. You can't do that, but the refs were all set and not looking back. Kobe just held his hands up and walked forward taking every hit. He's smart. T-Mac got frustrated by that stuff and at times tried to throw off the defender like he did to AK. Refs might catch you trying to throw off Utah's illegal shoves, which gets called an offensive foul. But mainly, it's all about strong offensive players who can get contact and still score, and do it consistently. Odom 7 fta Gasol 12 fta Kobe 12 fta Game 2 Rockets: Scola 10 fta T-Mac 9 fta Once the Rockets get more offensive weapons (the return of Yao, Brooks getting more time, another 2/3 guy who can drive hard), they'll be consistently shooting a high amount of freethrows against the foul-prone teams like the Jazz.
Kobe does attack more than Tmac, but you can easily see that he is getting all the calls Tmac wasn't, and that goes for the other Lakers.
Kobe - takes on contact...gets a foul called. Tmac - tries to avoid contact - no foul is called. That right there is the difference. DD
Its pretty obvious to me that kobe takes more contact than tmac first of all. I think its already been broken down in another thread that we don't draw many fouls as a team, and with yao out now, we will draw even less than our season average, while the lakers draw many more fouls.
Not defending TMac, but I still hate the notion that throwing your body at defender is rewarded while trying to get around it is not. A foul is a foul. If the defender hits you, it's a foul. What does it matter if you are trying to avoid it or not?
Agreed and Scola has the same problem in a different way. He avoids contact because he's trying to be elusive, not because he doesn't like it. He must learn to initiate the contact and go to the FT line. If he does this and learns to shoot FTs better, it will be hard to take him off the floor.
That's 50% more fouls called against Utah playing LA. I can't hardly believe LA is that much more aggressive. However, let's add Lowry, Siskauskas, and Maggette and get Yao to the FT line with 7 minutes left in each quarter. He should be MVP hitting about 11 for 12 every game.
the most obvious fact is that the Lakers attack much more than the Rockets. T-Mac settles for jumpers much more than Kobe, and guys like Scola try to avoid contact rather than take it on. if we had a player who consistently attacked the basket like Kobe we would've got the same calls. 23 FT attempts for Kobe in the first game says it all. He never let the Utah defense rest. Another part had to do with Utah's fatigue. They just came off a series while the Lakers had about a week of rest. Kobe was fresh and attacked every time he had the ball.
I agree the Lakers will initiate more contact. There are instances where you know Kobe is driving in trying to get contact w/ a bullseye on the defender. Tmac, not so much. But I thought it was interesting to hear Boozer's post game interview on getting in early foul trouble. He basically said that the Lakers are more of a finesse team and the refs will call it differently. I think that's more of a result of Utah getting away w/ murder the last series and the refs calling them on it now.
10 more foul calls a game isnt all Kobe by himself getting them. Some of its the Lakers as a whole being more aggressive. Or refs giving the higher profile team a little favoritism.
We didnt lose because of fouls, we lost because our point guard was out, we couldn't make a layup and our outside shooting was awful.
There are about 5 meaningless fouls to stop clock at the end of each game. So the disparity is not as big as it seems. Plus, you have Kobe and Odom attacking inside all the time. Gasol gets his going for dunk. Rox have Tmac settled for jumper most of the time, Scola tried to avoid contact as much as possible.
I don't agree with you on that. In the paint: Tmac was trying to get to the paint during the playoffs, and wasn't getting calls. He was seeking contact. There were some times when he just couldn't get into the paint because... Peremeter: ...AK was very physical (and illegal) in the way he was defending TMAC but wasnt getting away with the same thing for Kobe.
