No, I dont think the officials are the reason we lost but they damn sure made it more difficult for us to win. As an official myself, I just get tired of a few things.

1) Guys getting rewarded for non-basketball plays: Chris Paul is the biggest whiner I have ever seen. I watched and counted last night. 90% of the screens he ran into which were legal, he fell down. For someone considered to be such a good player, that is an alarming level of faking or falling down. Blake Griffin gets touched in the face one time and his head turns towards the contact. Ive been through plenty of neurology classes and physics lessons. It defies logic for someones body to react to blunt force by turning towards the contact. Your body will reflexively turn away.

2) Players allowed to create non basketball contact, incite reactions Reggie Evans is a real piece of work. However, I cant really blame him for his antics since he is allowed to get away with them. twice last night he fell down in the post away from the ball and they call a foul on Marc and ZBo. Three screen he set on offense were legal but then he literally reaches out and grabs the defender to not let him catch up. Zero whistles. Third, the screen he set on OJ in the backcourt was a good screen then he was allowed to talk shtt for the next fifteen seconds with no recourse. No wonder tempers were flaring and ZBo finally had enough. I would have too.

3) Constant complaining by Paul and the Clippers on every call Only once was Jordan whacked for saying something stupid. Paul whined every single whistle. Matter of fact, one time Griffin fouls Dante, Then Paul mouths off to Dante, and the officials tell Dante to cut it out.

Its hard for me to think the NBA is officiated fairly without agenda when I had to witness all of that clusterfruck last night. It saddens me that the officiating effort was so detrimental not only to the potential outcomes, but to the overall ugliness of the game. Good officials dictate tempo and flow of the game.

Im not speculating above about individual calls really. there were a lot of bad ones on both ends. The total disregard of reviewing the shot clock violation before the half was not bad officiating, there was something more to it. No reason not to look. The Griffin push in the back with no call only to get rewarded with an and1 was baffling. Even CP3 getting smacked in the face on his layup should have been whistled. Rudy got fouled fifty times but was rewarded because he didnt fall down. I just dont understand rewarding someone for falling down. [/rant]

Glad to see an official display his displeasure.
I agree with everything you said here.
It's not going to change the fact that the NBA wants and needs the west coast market to stay in the playoffs as long as possible.
We're expendable.

How many steps does Chris Paul get on a drive before the officials are forced to call traveling? I can think of one drive in particular where he took 4 steps between when he stopped his dribble & when he released the ball.
And you are right about the flops. It's getting embarrassing.

Im not as against the no calls on traveling as I am about rewarding flops.

(05-08-2012 01:25 PM)homefry20 Wrote:  Im not as against the no calls on traveling as I am about rewarding flops.

Even Webber called out Griffin last night. Saying a man as big as him needs to take the hit and get over it and not fall all over the floor like a ragdoll. The flopping is certainly rewarded over and over which is why they keep doing it. Funny too that when our players get literally thrown to the ground and oftentimes nothing is called.

Thats because we dont make it looked like we just got sniped in a video game. We actually try to stay on our feet and keep going.

One of the greatest things about Curtis Shaw and his supervisor status of officials over CUSA, Big XII, Southland, and OVC is that he wants all illegal contact called as a foul. Might be a lot of fouls but players arent rewarded for falling down and both teams get consistent treatment.

I think the refs are over their head in this series.

It's been one of the more physical ones I've seen in a while.

(05-08-2012 03:01 PM)BIGGESTTIGERJLB Wrote:  I think the refs are over their head in this series.

It's been one of the more physical ones I've seen in a while.

The thing that is disturbing is that David Stern oversees officials. Therefore, they might not be in over there heads, they might just be doing as told.

Remember Tim Donaghy saying that playoff games meant that they were going to be told how to officiate games based on the teams? Lot of truth to that.

Rewarding flops is maddening, but at some point, you've got to call a travel too. I'm convinced now that CP3 is the best overall point guard in the league. He can take over games like Rose and dish it like Rondo. However, there were multiple times that he took several steps just trying to create contact. And then, from what I can remember last night, he absolutely 100% dragged his pivot foot on the huge scoop shot in overtime. No call. I like that the officials don't want to get in the way late in games, but you've gotta do your job at some point.

Haven't payed much attention to cp3 traveling, but i know blake travels on virtually every post play were he attempts to use a pivot......after pivoting, he then takes a step picking up his pivot which is illegal. Theres a youtube clip which illustrates this perfectly....pickup the pivot before shooting is illegal.

The Griffin push-off+phantom and1 in OT was what got me the most. That was a game changer in overtime and what launched a 5 point swing.

I agree, that obvious push off was horrendous. How do you miss that?

This erases any doubt that people might have about Stars getting preferential calls. Still one of the most unbelievably worst calls I have ever seen.

That may be the most ridiculous call I've ever seen. Did Grizz executives not send that to the League offices for review? Good God.......

Hard to say how the officiating affects the players' performance, but it has to be a continuous punch in the stomach. How many times have the bad calls changed the momentum in the games? In such a close series it makes a difference.

I admit, our players, Rudy, Zbo and Marc particularly, really struggle with the no calls and it shows constantly in their body language and faces. Just imagine if they were getting calls like they're getting paid. Memphis would be a favorite.

So, the NBA gives a little white glove treatment to it's "superstars"...in other shocking news, the sky is blue.

like with josh pastner not working the officials enough, I blame hollins. He needs to be banging the drum in press conferences about flopping and the differential between the teams treatment. Talk a little, create some media stir. There's plenty of video evidence to back up his claim

(05-08-2012 01:13 PM)CKMcDan Wrote:  How many steps does Chris Paul get on a drive before the officials are forced to call traveling? I can think of one drive in particular where he took 4 steps between when he stopped his dribble & when he released the ball.
And you are right about the flops. It's getting embarrassing.

I would enjoy basketball much more if they were strict about traveling and dribbling. That's all I ask for. College and NBA players carry the ball 70% of the time. When you hear the term crossover dribble, odds are they palmed the ball or carried it. Every NBA player should be required to watch video of Pistol Pete dribbling the ball so they know how to do it.

(05-10-2012 03:17 PM)jgardne Wrote:  like with josh pastner not working the officials enough, I blame hollins. He needs to be banging the drum in press conferences about flopping and the differential between the teams treatment. Talk a little, create some media stir. There's plenty of video evidence to back up his claim

So, you want to lighten his wallet?