Refs wtf?

[lobosloboslobos]

The refs were bad but I would never blame them in a situation like that. We had every opportunity to win this game. If we can't even make an inbounds pass that woulda won us the game after 2 tries we deserve to lose. Clownderon handed them the game. AA had 2 guys around him and he was almost out of bounds when Calderon passed to him. I bet most people felt it coming too. The guy ALWAYS manages to **** up inbounds passes somehow late in game. It's actually funny at this point.

I don't understand this way of thinking. Everything you say about how we screwed it up is true

BUT

even though jose shouldn't have thrown it to AA there is no question whatsoever that AA was pushed out of bounds. That is just a plain and simple fact. AA did not launch himself out of bounds on purpose, and even if the ball was thrown to him 3 feet out of bounds he is a big human and can easily catch it 3 feet out of bounds while his feet remain in bounds. He was pushed out of bounds and that is a foul. The proper call was a foul on the 76ers whcih would have ended the game. Instead, it gave the 76ers a chance to tie it. And posters are fine with that bad call? Really? Do you think the players are?

if the Heat or San Antonio had that happen to them there would be outrage. But we think we deserved it? How is that supporting our players, who choked a lead away but still did just enough to win the game only to get robbed? Keeping in mind this has been happening all season.

[JustaKnickFan]

The refs were bad but I would never blame them in a situation like that. We had every opportunity to win this game. If we can't even make an inbounds pass that woulda won us the game after 2 tries we deserve to lose. Clownderon handed them the game. AA had 2 guys around him and he was almost out of bounds when Calderon passed to him. I bet most people felt it coming too. The guy ALWAYS manages to **** up inbounds passes somehow late in game. It's actually funny at this point.

I don't understand this way of thinking. Everything you say about how we screwed it up is true

BUT

even though jose shouldn't have thrown it to AA there is no question whatsoever that AA was pushed out of bounds. That is just a plain and simple fact. AA did not launch himself out of bounds on purpose, and even if the ball was thrown to him 3 feet out of bounds he is a big human and can easily catch it 3 feet out of bounds while his feet remain in bounds. He was pushed out of bounds and that is a foul. The proper call was a foul on the 76ers whcih would have ended the game. Instead, it gave the 76ers a chance to tie it. And posters are fine with that bad call? Really? Do you think the players are?

if the Heat or San Antonio had that happen to them there would be outrage. But we think we deserved it? How is that supporting our players, who choked a lead away but still did just enough to win the game only to get robbed? Keeping in mind this has been happening all season.

Refs miss tons of calls in the clutch. It's not just a "Raptors get no respect" kind of thing. Here are some other screw-ups by the refs in other clutch situations. Instead of complaining about calls the Raptors need to play well enough to not be at the mercy of the refs.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTppJTGf_Oo[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzMJ77VBqks[/youtube]

[lucky777s]

I think the league is in transition with its refs. Lots of younger guys now, the old timers being phased out. And they are struggling with that. If you watch a lot of nba games you see even star players get screwed on calls a lot.

I also think that the Raps are getting a bad reputation with the refs. They are constantly sending in tapes and whining to the refs about blown calls and I would bet the refs don't like that too much. It could be having the opposite effect the Raps want and giving the refs a subtle bias against the team cause they just don't like the way the team handles those things.

But really, at 14-40 the only explanation is lack of talent. We have the opposite record of the top teams in the East. That is a bad team and swinging a couple of games does nothing to really change that.

FIRE BC, bring in competent management and good talent and the ref problem likely fades away.

[Too Late Crew]

Have some refs in the past been caught shaving points? YUP

Is making calls against the Raptors an indicator of shaving points? I don't know but I'm going to insist the answer is no even though I have absolutely no evidence just blind faith in the integrity of our referees despite indisputable proof that there are biases in how games are called at least some of the time.

fixed

Way to edit out 90% of my post where I give a prime example of the refs not doing something easily available to them to give the Sixers the game.

There is no rational reason that a point shaver would choose to CONSISTENTLY make calls against the Raptors. That would be an easily detectable pattern.

Point shaving would require that they SOMETIMES favour the Raptors in order to cover the spread.

[lobosloboslobos]

But really, at 14-40 the only explanation is lack of talent. We have the opposite record of the top teams in the East. That is a bad team and swinging a couple of games does nothing to really change that.

agreed. but fwiw, the league itself has said it cost us 2 games, throw in this one and a couple of the botched games early in the season where the impact of biased/incompetent reffing was clearly shown in detail in earlier threads, and we could be talking 5-6 games. This doesn't make us a better team per se, but a lot of this game is mental and the impact of getting 5 close wins as opposed to 5 close losses early in the season can be magnified in many ways over the year, on the cohesion and trust and performance level of a team, their being tuned in to the coach, their relationships with each other on and off the court, etc.

So while I am definitely not blaming the refs exclusively or absolving the coach and players of responsibility in any way, i do think there is a very reasonable narrative that could be considered whereby the team's entire season - whose potential to be a good team this year was always at best poised on a knife edge - has been substantially undone by bias/incompetence from refs (and a horrific schedule from the league, which somehow we always seem to get.)

And while some might agree with that possibility and stop there, I personally find that this narrative yields the question about league bias, since I personally believe that refs are more biased than incompetent, and that to a certain degree - an unknown but real degree - the league influences games and standings through referees for strategic and business purposes. I have no evidence of this, other than all the games we are getting screwed out of - to the point where in an almost unprecedented way the league has twice now admitted its officials mistakes cost us games this season - and what we know from Donaghy's verfied-by-the-FBI claims about referee and league bias - so I don't claim this narrative is true, but there is enough evidence for me to wonder why this keeps happening.

And yes, obviously the solution is to play well enough for these games not to be so close, but I don't subscribe to the idea that just because we've blown a 19 point lead that the refs have the right to screw us out of the game.

EDIT: btw I personally wouldn't guess that point shaving would be the motivation for bias. No idea what it is, but in previous threads as you know I put out some totally hypothetical possibilities. And I know you don't accept them. So whatever, we disagree.

[UnderdogRaptors]

Can't blame the refs on this game we just choked down the stretch, and Casey didn't make the correct adjustments at the right time please bench DD and Jose next game to send a message, but the Bulls game we got jobbed big time.

[DanBootleg]

Regardless of the missed call you don't run that play when trying to get the ball in three times in a row. Set a screen get it to the guy who you want to shoot freethrows. Personally I don't understand why Calderon (our best FT shooter) is inbounding when Anderson is a pretty good passer and much taller. Oh and we blew a 19 point lead.

[orbesnet]

bad reffing is what the nba is all about, they say it's the hardest game to call... so let's use more instant replay. coaches should have a chance to challenge, makes the league seem like a joke.

[lucky777s]

agreed. but fwiw, the league itself has said it cost us 2 games,

That is not quite true. Those mistakes would have given the Raps a CHANCE to TIE up each game with 2 made FT's. Raps would have still had to do more to actually win the game. Just as likely they go on to lose.

Amir had just missed a clutch FT that would have iced the game. So certainly no gimme he makes those 2.

[zilby]

That's three games that have been taken from the Raptors based on ONE key non-call, bar the other games with several atrocious reffing.

And sadly, those three games were critical for this team's "playoff hopes". Beating Chicago would have been huge, beating Philly would have put us 1 game back of 9th, and the game against the Cats would have been an extra win. Those three calls are correct, you're looking at this team completely different right now, and we're probably in 9th looking at pushing into that 8th seed.

And I've gotta say, 17-23 looks a helluva lot better than 14-26.