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^Great stuff, FWD.
I don't know that Donaghy is particularly credible on anything -- whatever he knew when he was officiating games is now significantly dated and at that, he's a proven liar.
With that said, I don't think there's much doubt that the whistles went to Portland in the 3rd (and were going to go to Portland in that quarter, given the cir stances) to try to create some reason for people to leave their TVs on and stay with the game. It happens frequently; I'm not sure it was ever as egregious (and as effective) as it was in Game 2 of last year's West Finals, where the Spurs got up by nearly 20, only to see Scott Foster put 3 fouls on Tim Duncan (getting him to 4 PF with 7:51 left in the 3rd) in the span of 30 seconds of the early 3rd (literally). Memphis somehow erased a big deficit -- likely because it outshot the Spurs 20-4 in second half FTA, while shooting only slightly better from the floor on basically the same number of FGA. It's the way of the league and has long been that way, particularly when games are televised nationally. It sucks, but it's pretty much completely predictable.
The big part of Game 1 from an officiating standpoint was winning a home game with that crew. In these playoffs where road teams have basically been .500 (26-28 after last night; last season through two rounds, home teams won more than 62% of all games and as recently as 2011, the home teams through 2 rounds won more than 70% of all games) in the playoffs, there is no bigger homer crew than last night's. Brothers has called 6 games in these playoffs and home teams are 6-0; Washington has called 7 games and home teams are 6-1 (with the one road win being Miami's Game 4 win in Charlotte); even Tony Brown has called 3 games and home teams are 3-0 with him. If you were going to draw that crew in these playoffs, it was best to get them at home and to take advantage of it, which the Spurs did, despite the efforts to manufacture some tension.
^Great stuff, FWD.
I'm saying there's a bias. He and Kennedy are turrible when the Spurs are on the court.
The refs will also look at the number of free throw attempts by each team in the first half and blow whistles in the second half to "even it out". The Spurs took a lot of free throws in the first half of one of the games against the Mavs due to all the intentional fouling of Splitter under the basket, and then the zebras felt the need to reward Dallas for touch fouls in the second half.
I thought Tiago was more fairly officiated in the first half when he was allowed to bang on LA and play defense.
In the second half LA received "star" treatment IMHO because Green and Diaw along with Tiago all got called for too many fouls.
I didn't notice it in anyone's favor. I noticed a lot of offensive fouls were called that are normally not called, like Matthews and Parker on the transition push offs, a couple on some illegal screens that I couldn't make out even on replay. I don't know what happened to be honest. If anything, I could see it allowing for more advertising time. It did get strange for about 5 minutes in the 3rd.
I think the NBA refs have too much control over the flow of the game. It's the only sport I am aware of, other than boxing, where the ref can interfere with the contest so much.
I did, I noticed that they let Tiago play defense against LA in the first half, but didn't in the second even though Tiago did nothing differently.
We were up by like 15-20 most of the way, no conspiracy to keep "them in the game", because they were always out of it with their poor shooting and terrible defense. No need to complain about the refs tbh.
But Tiago didn't foul out. Wes did. Aldridge had 5 fouls. If you watch the game without team bias, you'll see the refs tightened down big time after a couple hard fouls in transition, probably to keep guys from trying to injure each other. Also, when coaches call refs over to point something out, the ref likely listens and focuses on that until teams make adjustments.
Refs were baiting for a Spurs meltdown with all these crappy fouls but all they got was a technical foul from Ginobili from that travelling play lol
He's really not skilled at drawing contact he either shoots over the defender or bulldozes into them and half the time gets the call.
I mean, net biased reffing in favor of one team is never overt because there are bad calls both ways. My eyeball test suggested that the Blazers benefited from a +4 bull FTA advantage compared to the spurs. There were more than 2 bad calls (2 FTA per call) in favor of the blazers, but for every bad call > 2 in favor of the blazers, there was a bad call in favor of the spurs which cancels out, hence a net rating of +4 FTA.
However, I stopped paying close attention after half time so that figure is probably not entirely accurate.
The thing is when two teams are so closely matched, a +4 bull FTA either way often exceeds the margin of victory which is disturbing, to say the least.
The final free throw tally was 31 FTA (blazers) vs 25 FTA (spurs).
A perfectly reffed game would've been 20 FTA (blazers) vs 18 FTA (spurs) (this is a rough estimate). A game in which the bull fouls exactly evened out would've been 27 FTA (blazers) vs 25 FTA (spurs).
Durrant's speech was awesome
what was Ginobili's tech about?
the refs can control NFL/mlb games too, but coaches can challenge their bs.
He got called for traveling and slammed the ball down in frustration. It bounced back hard and he missed catching it on the way up. As a result it went over his head and bounced downcourt a few times.
Had he actually caught the ball on the way up, I doubt the tech would have been called.
He got away with murder against Houston and I wouldn't be totally surprised if Game 1 is an anomaly from the refs when it comes to him.
We can count on being screwed in this regard so if we get up or they have a shooting slump we can not let up at all.
It's pretty clear that the NBA wants every series, with the exception of any of Miami's, to go to 2-2. They've even put their beloved Reflahoma in an 0-1 hole, TWICE.
MethKC wasn't in an 0-1 hole last series, and Miami set an NBA record for least team FTA in a seven-game series last June
I felt like there was a small stretch there where the refs tried to help the blazers out.... i'm one to not go there too... but this was apparent.
My bad. They were in a 1-2 hole in the first round.MethKC wasn't in an 0-1 hole last series, and Miami set an NBA record for least team FTA in a seven-game series last June
The last time Miami received any significant ref help was back in 2011 against Boston in the ECSF.
Miami actually doesn't get as much of an advantage on foul calls as people might think, At least against the Spurs they don't. Westbrook could drop kick someone and they'd probably just give him a tech. OKC seems to get 80% if the 50/50 calls on any given night.
The Clippers haven't necessarily been favored by the refs this post season. Griffin fouled out in less than 20 minutes in game 1 against GSW.
In game 2 against OKC, Paul and Jordan each picked up 5 fouls in 31 and 29 minutes. Griffin had 4 in 35 minutes and the team had 26.
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