http://mikebarrettsblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/blazers-nipped-again.html I can't say I disagree, despite how objective and partial I typically try to be.
I don't think the officals are to blame in the serious. Nobody's stepping up and being aggressive except ROY. Outlaw is lost in the fog and LMA is being a pansy. RUDY is playing his guts out for his limited time played and Joel is the beast. Oden is like a deer blinded by headlights. Blake is on/off like hes being drinking V-8 juice on his own time frame. The series is done as the only person who gave "true grit" in this playoff run is ROY.
...it is impossible to ignore this elephant though!!! The timing of the calls and/or non-calls is what kills any type of momentum for the Blazers [you might have players "stepping up" more often had they been able to get their rhythm going instead of stopping play with whistle after whistle against them]!!!
If you want the calls you need to be more aggressive. There have been bad calls, and the Blazers get the short end of the stick. At the same time if you were to look at the total number of shot attempts and where those attempts are coming from you would see why they have shot more FTs and why the Blazers have had more fouls called on them.
It's too bad Nate won't stand up for his team like the play by play guy does. Nate needs to learn that whining about the officiating when the margin is that large helps. Post game news conferences are for that. Take the damn fine and move on Nate. It's probably too late now though. It would also be nice to see Nate get a T once in a while.
I have been BEGGING for this all season and even more so in the playoffs. I dont want to become the team that whines on the court about everything but every once in awhile you have to stand up for yourselves if for no other reason than to get a little momentum off of the T.
When Portland is aggressive it makes no difference. Houston shoots at least as many jump shots as Portland, so I am not sure why anyone thinks this myth is true. The fact is that the officials have decided every game but the first one. They are controlling the game from start to finish. Nothing either team does on the court matters. That is what saddens me about this series. Even if Portland comes back to win the whole thing it won't feel good to me as a fan of basketball. The shear number of calls being made is absurd. I am watching other playoff series and I am not seeing the same level of calls being made. Other teams are allowed to actually play the game. Both Portland and Houston are not.
Its not just about the Offensive side of the ball, Portland is getting LAME ass calls on the defensive side. We cant play D without getting a ticky tack foul called. Which leads to wide open shots, open lanes etc. Because we cant afford no more fouls. Both centers out last night before end of 1st quarter is absurd especially with the way Yao Hooks everyone on every offensive play he has ball.
Houston runs their offense through Yao, Portland through Roy. For the series, the two primary guys covering Ming (Joel & Greg) have 36 fouls, the two primary guys covering Brandon (Artest & Battier) have 13. If the Rockets are to advance against the Lakers, would anyone want to take the under in an over/under bet that those two are averaging more/less then 1.625 fouls each per game after 4 games? Is it sports or is it sports entertainment with Stern just trying to please his paying customers? Certainly Blazer fans do not add up to Rocket fans + China in dollars generated for the league. I very much doubt Nate whining publicly about the officiating in the press or making an ass of himself on the sidelines picking up the occasional T results in anything other then him being portrait as a whiner. I'd rather he and the team continue on the high road. If the speculation above matters, the Blazers need to build their brand/appeal to succeed in the long run. Remember when Stern promised transparency in reviewing the officiating following the embarrassing Donaghy scandal/accusations of the league actively manipulating playoff results through it's officials? If anything came of that, I missed it. Everyone and their mother suggested that the league allow the officials to exist independent of the commissioner's office like they do in other sports to avoid the obvious appearance of shenanigans. Stern gave this subject lots of lip service a year back but for some reason he kept things the way they were. STOMP
I'm just sick of the biggest guy in basketball being treated like he's a pansy every game! Yao is 7'5, treat him like a man! Hell.... half the time he's at the line he's laughing because he knows the calls we are getting are BULLSHIT!!!
Man... if MB believes we're getting screwed by the refs, then it must be pretty bad. Totally a different stance than what Jay Allen and Tone were taking last night on the Fifth Quarter. What a tough weekend it's been..
Bullshit. This series is far from over. We took everything the Rockets had and lost two games by a total of four points. This from a team that struggled mightily on the road.
Mike and Mike are to of the most homerific tv guys out there. I wouldnt say that if MB says its bad it must be bad.. I would say the other way around if Jay and Tone says its bad.. then its bad. But The refs were not at all to blame. Our lack of hustle and sloppy play in the 4th cost us that game.
The problem is that if our bigs try to be as agressive on Yao as Scola is on LMA or Yao is on Przy or GO, we get whistled for fouls and they don't. After our bigs were whistled for four ticky-tack fouls in the first half of the first quarter, any low post game for us disappeared. After that we were a perimeter team. Yao was whistled for one foul in 44 minutes. That allowed him the freedom to be agressive. You can't just look at the number of fouls or the FT attempts. You need to look at the way a game is being called. I have zero problem if a game is called badly, but is consistently bad. I have a problem when the game is called differently for two teams. We're not being allowed to match their agressiveness, and it's put us in a real hole. I think we should go down swinging. The data show it's highly unlikely that we'll win three straight. I think we need to stop worrying about fouling and demonstrate to the refs what a foul looks like. Oden is strong enough to make someone physically pay for coming down the middle. If he's going to get called for barely bumping someone, he should flatten them. It's still just one foul. However, the latter type of foul also sends a message.
M&M are terrible homers, surpassed only by Pete Pranica in Memphis. I love Barrett, but he needs to realize it's okay to be objective. As for Rice, his schtick is to be overly dramatic. It's too bad, because he really knows hoops. I wish he would share what he knows instead of being a cheerleader.
QFT. It doesn't bother me that the officials are deciding the games - that often happens. What bothers me is that the officials have been PROACTIVE about deciding the games. The fouls on our bigs at the beginning of the game were Donahidiculous.
Agree with you there.. Oh and Pranica is HORRIBLE.. coeincidence (sp?) that he used to work for our team? lol
The reffing has been bad, but it's not a surprise. Artest, Battier and Yao are well-traveled veterans with enormous defensive reputations to hang their hats on. Now look at Portland's three best defenders: Oden: Rookie Batum: Rookie Przybilla: 24 mpg career center who used to have a reputation for fouling a lot, and outside of his own wife, has probably never sold a ticket in an NBA game. It sucks, but that's life. When your best defenders are so low on the totem pole, that kind of foul disparity is just going to happen. Here's the question I ask myself: "Why are our 3 best defenders these guys?" Outlaw's been in the league 6 years now. How is it, with his insane athleticism and his experience, he's not even as good a defender as a 19 year old rookie? And how is it that our veteran starting PG gets torched by Aaron Freakin' Brooks repeatedly?
