OT - 27 Free Throws

[theman]

For Kobe. WTF? Is there a little preferential treatment?

Dick Bavetta or Violet Palmer have money on Kobe scoring 50+?

The entire Dallas team only got 25 FT's.

[Datruth345]

yeah

pretty ridiculous when one player takes more free throws than the other team

[tombattor]

For Kobe. WTF? Is there a little preferential treatment?

Dick Bavetta or Violet Palmer have money on Kobe scoring 50+?

The entire Dallas team only got 25 FT's.

Well, if you just look at the box score, you may think that. However, box score doesn't always tell the whole story. Kobe is a player that drives a lot, so even if he does get some preferential treatment, he also does get fouled quite a bit because he can beat his guy most of the time and is often facing the 2nd line of the opposing D.

[e in boulder]

[kghatestolose]

As celtics fans we shouldn't worry about it. Paul Pierce has pulled similar numbers - Nov 2005 vs the Knicks took 24 - not a big difference. I think he hit 21 in a single playoff game.

[BrokenLeftyJumper]

You can't make conclusions solely based on looking at the box score. I watched a good chunk of that game and it seemed like Kobe was driving a good amount and getting legit calls. They weren't fadeaway jumpers where Kobe throws his hands up like he got shot, mean mugs the ref, and he automatically gets the call.

On the other hand, Dallas got some ridiculous calls at the end of the game. One where Dirk just totally flopped w/o being touched. And the second where Kidd drove, down 3, and basically threw himself into Gasol as he tried to run away to avoid any sort of three point play.

Looking at FT disparities and making some sort of conclusion based on that is kinda stupid. Heinsohn does it all the time, last night he wouldn't stop bringing up how the Hawks had shot twice as many FT's as the C's. Teams don't automatically end the game with just as many FT's attempted. If a well-officiated game always involves two teams shooting around the same number of FT's, then whats the point of referees? Just let each team shoot 20 FT's before the game and go from there. When a team is playing bad defense, they generally foul more than a team that is playing good defense. Thats generally what a FT disparity indicates, not any sort of ref conspiracy.

[Truthiracy]

(picture)

[mr_sunshine]

There's no preferential treatment at all. If you actually watched the game you would have seen that Kobe was taking it to the rack all day because Avery Johnson is a stubborn mule and wouldn't double team him even though he's clearly faster than everyone he used to guard him. If they had double teamed Kobe he would have had to give up the ball and probably wouldn't have shot nearly as many FTs.

[GoGoCeltics]

It's easy to blow by your defenders when you cover their eyes with a towel so they can't see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB1jNJN81zE