2019 NBA Catch-All - It’s Fantastic

Yep I agree with you on that one, he was kicking for a call.

And I want to be 100% clear. Some of the Warriors' closeouts were really bad. I totally agree. And some Warriors flop too.

I frequently point the finger at Harden, because I feel his fishing for calls has polluted officiating in the NBA more than any player. LeBron was also terrible for a long time, but I feel like Harden has directly contributed to a climate of mistrust that's lead us to where we are today.

Yes Harden is the worst. And I'm a Reggie Miller fan from way back. It's a whole other level now.

It wasn't all Hraden for me. I was really hyped for the game and the first half ended up incredibly sloppy with a tonne of Warriors turnovers and Houston not making shots, then you have all the ref complaining after actual fouls (KD had one at the rim where he hit the guy's arm and complained a tonne about the call), and two of Thompson's closeouts on Harden did look like dangerous fouls to me (and the TNT ref commentator said as much).

On the closeouts I was thinking how I had just seen Kawhi have a dominant game and here's a couple bad closeouts that could cause an injury to another incredibly productive player (who I don't especially like watching outside of highlights, but still). But I'm not experienced enough watching to really know what's a natural follow-through on a 3-point jumpshot — Lillard's step-back winner looked mostly up-and-down to me, which makes me question most of Harden's jumps, but I've watched Kyle Lowry take more threes than any other player and his jumper has a lot of forward momentum to it.

I don't think NBA refs so a bad job, I appreciate how the game's officiated to let skill players use their skill for the most part, but a big part of that's me coming from NHL fandom where the referees officiate to make each side have pretty much the same number of penalties regardless of how many infractions either team commits.

This won’t help

The Houston Rockets believe officiating in last season's Western Conference finals cost them an NBA championship, and in a report since sent to the league, tabulated the net result of 81 potential missed calls and non-calls in Game 7 of that series between Houston and the Golden State Warriors, according to the report and an accompanying memo, both of which have been obtained by ESPN.
"Referees likely changed the eventual NBA champion," says the memo, addressed to Byron Spruell, the NBA's president of league operations. "There can be no worse result for the NBA."

The way Harden is angling his feet coming down on that shot there's no way he would actually land.

I'm really over the Rockets + Golden State. I still enjoy watching Curry play but with Durant blah.

If neither of those teams win I think the NBA would be best off.

My solution would be to call technicals on flopping and on trying to prevent a player from cleanly landing. Not only are these plays deceptive, but they're dirty. On both ends. You risk causing a career-threatening injury for a slight advantage that only mildly resembles a legitimate basketball play.

I would crack down on this so hard that the nonsense would end tomorrow. Even if, to get there, you had to literally play early season games of 3 on 4 because everyone else was ejected.

Embiid with the flu today on top of the knee issues. Looking like it just might not be the Sixers' year this year.

Roke wrote:

Embiid with the flu today on top of the knee issues. Looking like it just might not be the Sixers' year this year.

Well that worked out. Greg Monroe and Ennis had a half.

(Thought Philly was great defensively. Simmons is doing a really good job on Kawhi).

The whole kicking out after the shot is infuriating. I would do a roundhouse leg sweep and then he would land on his butt. Probably. F2 but worth it.

I'm not sure why there is a need to single out anyone.. they all whine, complain, and flop non-stop.. last night Kyle Lowry (who I loved at Nova) was whining non stop last night.

Just seems like part of the game these days.

No, Harden is the worst. Especially because these supposed missed calls do not even scratch the surface on the hooks and push offs he got away with and even got and 1's on.

Plus even with all of that, Houston was still in a great position to steal the game in a few spots and could not. (GS up by 5 and let Harden I believe walk in for the lay up. And then later all GS had to do was hold onto the ball and KD was trapped and turned it over when they were only up by 4 with 20 seconds left)

And lets put to rest that having Chris Paul would have changed the outcome last season. He played game 1 and the Warriors played so sloppy with so many incredibly lazy turn overs and still won. (and led by as much as 9-11 quite a few times) I think there was a 4-5 minute stretch in the 4th were GS only had a few free throws for scoring and still grabbed the win. Oh and Curry nearly fouled out...

So the NBA assigned Scott Foster to ref tonight's Houston / Golden State game. I don't know what they are thinking, if they want officiating to not dominate the series, assigning him is the last thing they should do.

You might remember Foster is the ref that was voted the NBA's "worst referee" by the players and was called out by Harden earlier this season by saying it is personal and he should not ref any more of their games. Harden has fouled out four times in his career, three of them were Foster games. Paul as president of the players union talked to the commissioner's office about him, and I think D'Antoni had specific complaints regarding him as well. He was also the ref in that Game 7 with the Warriors last year that Houston just released that big report about. The Warriors have complained about him too (Shaun Livingston's only ejection was done by Foster).

I don't understand why the NBA office would keep fanning the flames of this instead of just having this ref work one of the other three series. Even if they don't believe there is a bias then still him just being assigned stirs up the conversation that they don't want.

LeapingGnome wrote:

So the NBA assigned Scott Foster to ref tonight's Houston / Golden State game. I don't know what they are thinking, if they want officiating to not dominate the series, assigning him is the last thing they should do.

You might remember Foster is the ref that was voted the NBA's "worst referee" by the players and was called out by Harden earlier this season by saying it is personal and he should not ref any more of their games. Harden has fouled out four times in his career, three of them were Foster games. Paul as president of the players union talked to the commissioner's office about him, and I think D'Antoni had specific complaints regarding him as well. He was also the ref in that Game 7 with the Warriors last year that Houston just released that big report about. The Warriors have complained about him too (Shaun Livingston's only ejection was done by Foster).

I don't understand why the NBA office would keep fanning the flames of this instead of just having this ref work one of the other three series. Even if they don't believe there is a bias then still him just being assigned stirs up the conversation that they don't want.

I think you solved your own mystery.

The Rockets complained about officiating to the NBA in a very public vocal manner.

The NBA then responded by assigning the ref they clearly don't like. Pretty sure that's a very clear stfu and deal with it response. Exclamation point don't air this in the media or you can eat more Scott Foster sh*t sandwiches.

Nah they assign the refs for the first four games before the series even starts. It will be incredible if he gets game 7 again though.

This has been more like what I have been used to as a Bucks fan.

And Marv Alberts + Chris Webber is just atrocious to listen to.

Curry's finger looked... out of place. I'm now bummed again by this series (but at least I'm still watching the game).

Edit: dislocated finger on non-shooting hand, so could be worse.

Of course Harden got poked in the eye and has been in the locker room since.

Philly just outstanding tonight.

Roke wrote:

Philly just outstanding tonight.

And Kyle Lowry continues to do Kyle Lowry things. Or not do? Both?

bhchrist wrote:
Roke wrote:

Philly just outstanding tonight.

And Kyle Lowry continues to do Kyle Lowry things. Or not do? Both?

I think he's just declined because of age a fair bit the last year or two. Early in the season when he was drawing all sorts of plaudits for his gaudy assist totals and unselfishness I was worried because it looked like he wasn't even trying to finish at the rim because he can't anymore - he was just Nashing all the time. But then he's had stretches where he has been able to generate his own shots and get to the basket, so I don't know. Philly's size is probably making that especially difficult for him (and the other shorter guys in Powell and VanVleet).

Last night was probably his worst game in a number of years, much worse than the 0-point game against Orlando. Normally when he has a bad scoring game the past few years the on/off stuff like +/- has been pretty kind to him. Last night both he and Gasol were something like -26, they just got bodied.

But the Raptors are basically a one-man team right now:

Duncan Smith
‏@DuncanSmithNBA

Ok, I had to double check those Kawhi on/off numbers for this series.

Kawhi ON:
110.0 offense, 100.6 defense
+9.4 net

Kawhi OFF:
56.7 offense, 109.7 defense
-53 net

Kawhi’s 27 minutes OFF in this series have been historically devastating.

Raptors are 62.4 points per *100 POSSESSIONS* better when Kawhi is on the floor than when he is off

What a game tonight! I wish both Portland and Denver could win this series.

I was up watching the whole thing because my baby is sick and needs supervision atm. At the end I was exhausted on behalf of the players, and I totally called Jokic missing one of those free throws. I was kinda hoping for a 5th OT but would have been wild to see Jokic play 70 minutes.

I went to turn on Sportscenter with SVP and got the final :40 seconds of regulation. Decided to watch it the ending, and holy cow what a game!

Honestly, Jokic was in the floor in the 4th OT, but he was done. They might have been better off just going with a fresh player at that point.

But, there was a ton of great play throughout OT. That was crazy.

The really wild thing is that the first half of the game was awful. Denver has clearly made the decision to “make the Blazers feel it”.

This bums me out, because I think it’s representative of the worst era of the NBA, but that’s clearly a choice they’re making.

Anyway, the first half was grabby and rough and pretty hard to watch. Mercifully by the second half everyone got used to the contact and they were able to play through it and the second half and OTs were wildly entertaining.

Also, I kept thinking of the poor east coast fans. I watched it in real time and even I was exhausted.

I slept on the couch because I did not want to wake my wife up coming to bed at 3:00am...

It was the 4th quarter when I left work, and drove an hour home.

I got back and they were STILL PLAYING.

In the meantime, at least for a game, the Warriors looked human. I'd say the Rockets should feel enthused, but they only won that game because Steph Curry was unmitigated garbage, and I wouldn't count on him being that bad again.

Just xaught up on Q4 (& OT). Let's not just limit this to playoff games... was that the worst game of Curry's total NBA career to date?

Pretendbeard wrote:

Just xaught up on Q4 (& OT). Let's not just limit this to playoff games... was that the worst game of Curry's total NBA career to date?

I was just coming to post that NBA media and twitter is saying so, and I note that every third Westbrook game is similar nowadays