righterwriter wrote:Just admit it, Golden State is better than Houston. This trying to make refereeing the problem (when we know that Harden/Paul are the two biggest floppers in the game) is just deluding oneself to that.
Golden State is all time talented team I lost count how many times I've said that. It requires Houston to play their A game while GS has one or two shooters going cold for Houston to win a game, and with KD playing like the best player in the world right now, things get 2x tougher. Look at the WCF last year, Houston got blown out on most of their losses, and they won very narrowly. Sane Rockets fans all see the reality in front of us, an nobody is going to act like it's a shame if we lose to the Warriors - all we want to see is a competitive series. I used the word "rig" out of extreme frustration, if I can, I take it back.
But the thing is when game 1 went ultra competitive as a momentum swing series opener, when Houston did all they could to bring the game that close, seemingly lost it on some unfavored calls down the stretch and eventually lost the game by 1 possession, us fans have the right to question it. We are not saying those calls cost us the game, we are saying those calls were negative contributions. We are not saying referee is the problem, we are saying it is one of the problems. Game 2 was really clean from both sides, so even if it was still a loss, it was a lot more acceptable one.
There is also no need to bring floppers talk into this discussion. A guy can flop 100 times before and still should shoot 2 free throws if it's a legit foul. If we start to bring this logic of "if he cheated before then he should not get calls the rest of his career", where is the end? Where do we draw that line? I always thought it's better for everyone just stick to the game. If it's a foul, call it. If it's a leg sticking out or arm push off, call it offensive foul. You call a couple on Harden and it stops his push off automatically. Even as a Rockets fan I would love to see that because it makes the game a lot cleaner (and if you like, it makes our subsequent bitching on legit fouls more acceptable). However, we as posters have no need to elevate the discussion to an ethical level. Crying wolf, he deserves this treatment, he deserves this and that, it's not for us to say who deserves what. Look at Kerr, dude got punched by MJ, called Yao "Chinaman" on TV, did his fair share of ref complaining and snarky comments, a lousy GM who walked into a winning situation, there are quite a few better coaches out there who haven't won or will never win as much as Kerr had. Do we say Kerr not deserve his success or he needs to coach the Knicks to even out some of his luck? No, because it is not for us to comment who deserves what. We stay on the game itself, that's what we should do.
