Pillendreher wrote:RunOKC wrote:Pillendreher wrote:This is the worst loss of the season, easily. We were stomping them, up 19 with 7 minutes to go in the 3rd, excellent defense, good ball movement. And then the refs decided to get them back in it: For the rest of the quarter, the Pacers took more FTs than shots from the field (think about that for a second).* And lo and behold, a half court heave gets it within double digits. We then resort to trash turnovers and long range chucking. So **** frustrating.
*Sabonis, who constantly fouls whenever somebody forces him to his useless right hand by hitting the defender with his arm so he can go back to the left hand, and their version of Ingles combined for more FTs than our entire team. Since the ASB, we had a higher FTr than our opponent 3x out of a total of 12 games. Teams have attempted 5.7 % points more FTs per FTA since the ASB - the 2nd worst rate in the league, getting to the line for every 3rd shot they take.
On the season, we get 3.4 non-shooting fouls per 100 possessions called on us while the other team is in the bonus. Just within the last couple of games:
Clippers: 11.7
Denver: 11.2
Portland: 8.0
Indiana: 7.9
I know we tend to foul a tad more than other teams, but at some point this bull just has to stop. We're not the only team that touches players. We're not the only defense that plays physically. The refs are handing the opposing free cracks at the basket with this ticky tack bull. STOP IT.
I was looking at Russ' fouls/game over the years, and aside from one year at 2.7 and this year at 3.5, he has consistently been between 2.2-2.5. These new rules really suck for defense (and our style of defense specifically), but these officials just seem to really dislike our players and I don't see it ever changing til we rebuild. Russ/Paul complain way too much/not in a respectful manner at times, and these guys are only human (except scott foster and kenny mauer who are heartless robots). In a perfect world they would officiate the game correctly and not let emotions cloud their judgement but what can you do. We are completely helpless in this regard and just have to overcome it.
Sometimes we do tend to commit stupid fouls, I don't even want to act like we don't. I also know our guys complain a lot, but so does everybody else. You won't find a team that doesn't complain.
This is now the 3rd time in 6 games that the whistle made such a big difference in the game. The Pacers were done and then got brought back from the dead. Over the last 7 days, Portland, LA and Indiana combined for a total of 56 additional cracks at the basket for fouls called on us while those teams were in the bonus. Meanwhile we got 20. Am I supposed to believe that that is supposed to represent the reality that happened on the floor? These periods where they suddenly decide to call everything are just absolutely killing us. We can't defend because every little thing is suddenly a foul and we're out of rhythm on offense because of it.
I'd say "Stop fouling", but what good does that do when we get whacked on the other end it's play on while you can't touch Sabonis without getting called for a foul? After being down 19 in the 3rd, they had a FTr higher than 100 % for the rest of the quarter. I didn't even think that was possible. Yet with one minute left to go, they don't call this clearout by Sabonis:
And that was something he was doing all night long because he knows that his right hand is absolutely useless. I can't blame them to be frustrated when they let that go and call way too much non-consequential contact on the other side.
I'll preface this by saying everyone is frustrated lately with officiating for good reason. I agree we aren't getting a fair whistle, and we should almost never have less foul attempts than the opponent, but the CONSTANT complaining has to stop and it has to be respectful. No one is going to respond well to Russ and (less-so) Paul getting in their face about 75% of the calls. Yesterday for instance the fouls to put IND in the bonus during the 3Q were very questionable, but most of the ones where Ind shot FT's were just stupid foul after stupid foul. We fall for so many late shot clock pump fakes at the rim, and those are fouls that the refs have conditioned themselves into calling in favor of the offense pretty often. The most problematic fouls (out of our control) called are when TFerg/Jerami are defending perfectly on drives, but are still getting called for minimal contact fouls that they didn't even initiate. Those and Steven being straight up getting drove on. The perimeter defense needs to continue to be a little more lax. No point guarding 7 feet above the 3pt line every posession.
A story: last season at Game 2 vs Utah I was sitting directly behind a thunder staffer 10-15 rows above the OKC bench. I realized this after somehow catching a glance at his phone while standing and seeing the name 'Sam Presti' appear on his lock screen (which had a Blazers screensaver? Traitor?) as he was opening it. I eavesdropped a bit during the first half from behind out of curiosity and found him chatting back and forth with Presti about officiating/if the players were complaining (iirc he said the players weren't doing anything egregious complaining wise/Adams had some bad early calls go against him). At one point he straight up said something along the lines of "(Gary) Zilensky should never officiate a playoff game/How is he officiating a playoff game"
Just got to hope on defense they let us play a bit more in the post season.