Biggest story in the finals is the refereeing MERGE

[John from Hemet]

That is because they are setting moving screens. I really dont understand the blame on the officiating it is going both ways. In Game 2 Kobe hardly played due to bad calls on him. That is the way the series is being officiated (and it is being done both ways) so the players have to adjust.

Dont want to get a foul off a pick.....stop moving when you set your screen

I'll try this again....
Ray Allen was moving without the ball (not setting a screen). Fisher is draped all over him and Allen is called for the foul. It was a makeup call because the other ref gave the Cs the ball on the other end of the court and kennedy wanted to make up for that call.

Try going back and watching those sequences objectively.......Fisher is playing tight defense and Ray Allen is SHOVING him to try to gain separation. He is getting called for the fouls because Fisher is over exagerating the contact BUT ALLEN IS STIFFARMING HIM to gain separation....and he is doing it much more then it even gets called.

That is in fact a offensive foul.

[AlciG]

Officiating has been ferocious.. Sometimes Lakers get some bad calls, but for the most part referees were probably told by Stern that LA needs to win this series no matter what. It's awful to get such ENORMOUS FT differential. All 3 games LA had at least 10-12 FT more then us. And some of our stars is always in foul trouble- KG, Paul, Ray u name it.

It was really hard for me to accept the officiating yesterday. I was mentally exhausted after watching this game.

Not going to argue if calls have been correct or not, but this analysis is wrong.

Have you actually been watching the games?

Game 1: Boston 30-36 LA 24-31
Game 2: Boston 20-26 LA 31-41
Game 3: Boston 16-24 LA 21-24

So you are correct about 1 game. Only in game 2 has LA shot more FT's, and that's the only game Boston has won.

[MyInsatiableOne]

I still find it very telling that after Ray Allen and Paul Pierce had to essentially sit out games 1 and 3 of this series because of foul trouble there was nary a peep from the media, but when Kobe has to ride pine or play tentative in game 2 because of his five fouls there was a national catastrophe and media firestorm... hmmmm

And this is surprising why?

[Kefa461]

Well it's just not the rabid fan nor the casual fan it's even the owners......


A Celtics minority owner could face a fine by the NBA after a verbal confrontation with commissioner David Stern following the Celtics’ 91-84 Game 3 loss to the Lakers Tuesday night at TD Garden.
According to multiple sources with knowledge of the encounter, Jim Pallotta, angry at the officiating that included three reviewed calls in the fourth quarter, confronted Stern and apparently said the league should be embarrassed at the officiating in the series.


http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball ... ltics+news

[coldfish]

Non-Celtics / Lakers fan piping in:

IMHO, the biggest thing the NBA can do is go to 8 fouls per game on either all players or let teams select 3 players to protect with 8 fouls. The problem with bad calls is that they can often hurt a team twice. First, you lose a possession or the other team gains one. Secondly and even worse, good players can end up on the bench for extended periods of time, dramatically changing the game.

Let's say that Pierce or Kobe gets a ticky tack foul in the first quarter. No big deal, but then refs are put in a position where they either have to let Kobe / Pierce get away with murder or put them on the bench if there is a foul later in the first. That's a tough position to be in for a ref and I think it leads to a lot of inconsistency.

[Halfoat]

Scott Foster, Eddie F. Rush, Greg Willard


Not bad... only one terrible ref (Rush) out of three. I think this will be the best-officiated game in this series.

Mods, if you want to merge this into the referee thread go ahead... I just thought this deserved it's own announcement.

[Datruth345]

if you want to be sick to your stomach re-watch the 4th quarter and look at the screens the Lakers set, almost all of them, and all the ones in crucial plays, were blatantly illegal

Bynum was getting away with murder setting screens in the 4th quarter, i couldn't believe it

[Kefa461]

The Celtics said they counted 11 illegal screens set by the Lakers that were not called by the officiating crew of Bennett Salvatore, Bill Kennedy and Dan Crawford, and they forwarded the video footage to the N.B.A.

“You are not allowed to hold, you are not allowed to bump, and you are not allowed to impede progress,” Rivers said. “I read that this morning, and I’m positive of it. So, you know, when that happens, it has to be called.”


http://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/ ... l-on-refs/

[burgerplex]

Not bad? Is you crazy?

Eddie F. Rush is one of the five worst in the league. He has history with the Celtics that goes beyond the awful technical fouls in the Magic series.

The other two refs apparently love officiating Lakers games. LA is 9-1 in their last 10 officiated by Foster and 10-0 in their last 10 with Willard.

http://www.covers.com/pageLoader/pageLo ... 2.html&t=0

[Datruth345]

heres some referee stats while im bored at work

http://www.nbastuffer.com/referee_stats

eddie rush, scott foster, and greg willard are 13th 18th and 22nd in fouls called per game in the playoffs averaging 48.6 between them. The 3 games in the series so far have averaged 53 fpg (54,58,47)

and if i'm reading this correctly, eddie rush has done 6 games so far and the home team has won all 6 and eddie rush has the highest road team foul percentage at 59.1%

i dunno what it all means, i just want i nice cleanly officiated game on both sides, so we can talk about the players tomorrow, not the officials

[Halfoat]

Trust me I hate Eddie F Rush, he's probably the worst in the league... definitely top 3.

Foster is a d, and calls some quick technicals, but he's not bad overall.

Willard you don't hear much about so he can't be that bad.

I'm not saying there won't be any bad or missed calls, but it will be the least worst officiated game of this series.

[mwhis21]

[quote]
"i dunno what it all means, i just want i nice cleanly officiated game on both sides, so we can talk about the players tomorrow, not the officials"[/quote]`



Amen

[Lewis35]

What is sad is that the main focus of this series by the fans and media is not the teams playing but the refs.

[eitanr]

Eddie F Rush like Bennet Salvadore though are also very political refs.

They are the type of guys to call make up calls, or favor someone if they feel they have wronged them in the past.

Considering that is the case, Rush looked really bad in Orlando after throwing Perk out of the game with the 2 Ts. With that being the case, I could see him favoring Boston a bit here and making sure he doesn't get on Perk's bad side, or else people will take note.

I hate how this is what it has come to in the world of NBA refereeing....but I see it favoring the Celts nonetheless.

[Athanacropolis]

What is sad is that the main focus of this series by the fans and media is not the teams playing but the refs.

Yup! RedsArmy.com just made a post about this fact. It is a valid discussion point, even though the league and the mainstream writers would like us all to "stop whining."

[Mezotarkus]

The reality is this - until the fans decide to stop watching the games due to the refereeing and stop attending the games due to the refereeing - nothing will change.

[Athanacropolis]

The reality is this - until the fans decide to stop watching the games due to the refereeing and stop attending the games due to the refereeing - nothing will change.

Exactly. The players could also strike, because they, too, hate the refs, but that's never going to happen.

[Mezotarkus]

Well, I thought an interesting retaliation could be Boston Celtic's ownership could refuse to field the team for Game 4 but that would probably be too extreme.

The NBA needs to institute the audit function I suggested earlier in this thread and then only have refs in the playoffs that achieve high enough grades for consistency and accuracy.

Also, the NBA needs to give coaches in the finals at least 5 challenges that can be used during a game. The challenge would be evaluated by another person or persons (non-refs but knowledgeable people - e.g., former coaches, etc.) not on the court. And if the challenge leads to a call being overturned then it does not cost the coach a challenge.

That will introduce enough checks anc balances in the games to make people more comfortable that there is fairness.

[Cyclical]

This is key for me: Through three games, the Celtics have been whistled for 84 personal fouls to the Lakers' 75 - by no means showing an obvious bias, BUT here's the big difference - the ones who ot the most whistles are key players for the Celts, while LA key guys have received less. Pierce and Garnett have been whistled for 13 fouls apiece, while Lamar Odom of the Lakers leads with 14 personals. We need our big 4 on the floor to be successful. I really hope the refs are taking notes with all the deserved criticism.

[MyInsatiableOne]

Good for him:

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archi ... art_owner/