Overcoming bad calls

They say that great teams make the refs a non factor. Thats exactly what the Blazers did yesterday-they could have folded after Kobe tried to rip out our hearts again yesterday (that was a moving screen on Fish that wasn't called, although it was a blocking foul on LaMarcus BTW) but they didn't. For the Blazers to come out of Staples with a W yesterday was HUGE, esp. without Roy. For all you who are bashing on the refs: at least they didn't swallow the whistles like they did at the end of the OKC/Utah game. Bottom line-I think we are going to make some serious noise in the playoffs.

 

I wish this team would get a little tougher. If you know the refs are jobbing you, why not just use it to your advantage? If you know they're going to call a foul on you, it means you might as well use that foul to its full worth. I'd send in Pendergraph and have him use his six fouls in the best way possible.

McMillan: "Jeff, I want you to go in there and spike Kobe's head on the ground every time he tries to go to the hole."

Pendergraph: "Sure thing coach."

I would love to see the Blazers play with a little physicality. Make the other team want nothing to do with the paint. If you're going to get the foul anyway, why not?

 

Call me crazy, but after the Dallas loss, I was really encouraged by LMA's response; he was saying he "liked it" in reference to the game and the way it was played. If that's really true (and he seemed like he took it to heart against LA) then that could be the tipping point for this team -- having LMA embrace contact and playing 'up to his size' would be the biggest development in his career.

 

We have the players that could be mean and nasty on defense. Batum, LMA, and Camby are all guys who could really set the tone by playing physical, nasty, smash mouth defense. It just remains to be seen whether they can actually do it.

 

LMA usually responds well to trash talking. I wish he'd take every game and every possession personally without having to be provoked.

 

Me too, but if it happens and he can sustain it somehow then I consider 'all forgiven'

Maybe he needs to find some way to tap into his inner asshole like KG does -- his routine is tired as hell and bugs the shit out of me, but you can tell he has to do it to get his 'juice'

 

I would have liked LMA's comments more if we would have won. Why do we always have to learn a lesson from a loss?

 

Who is "they", and when did "they" say this? Great teams typically don't need to make the refs a non-factor, since the refs typically give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

I'm not sure where I heard that, really. Its just one of those sports mantras thats tossed around on a regular basis. Regarding the statement itself, it can be explained 2 ways.

1: A great team wins big, thus making any bad calls made during the game irrelevant.

2: A great team takes what the refs give it in close games, on the road, in a hostile enviorment; making all your free throws down the stretch, playing lockdown d without fouling by quickly determining how the refs are going to call the game, and by avoiding letting the refs getting in your head and picking up an ill-timed T.

We definitely did #2 yesterday.

 

I've heard them also say that great teams don't rely on a series of fluke free-throw misses to win their games...

 

Even had Chobe made both, or, if he missed two, Fisher made both, we still win due to Martell's FT's at the end. Regardless, a W is a W is a W. You could also say that "great teams get the breaks"...

 

They are full of shit.


The great NBA teams almost never actually face adversarial officiating. That typically goes the other way.

Further, many a great team has been completely undone by officiating (Dallas in 2005, Kings in 2002, etc..).

To say that any team could possibily transcend a ref actively trying to fuck them over is absurd. An official can gain near complete control over a games should they choose to do so. Announcers even discuss it openly during games. How if a game is getting "out of control" the officials will start making more calls to get the game back in hand. Really? How is this acceptable?

I have yet to hear about an official being fined or suspended for abusing that power (Jake O'Donald once bragged about fucking over the Trailblazers because he hated Drexler yet he wasn't punished even for admitting bias).

I have heard many times of players, coaches and owners being fined millions of dollars for even questioning an officials performance.

The sad fact is if an official decides your team isn't going to win a game, your team isn't going to win that game. They may not have to be blantent about it. They can always make a couple of bad calls the other way to give the appearance of being mearly incompetent. But they can do whatever the hell they want to to ensure your team loses. It's not like there is any mechanism to challenge calls other then having the same dude look at it again.

We all hope that officials don't abuse their power since that would taint a game we love to watch. Some people go to great lengths to avoid admitting that such abuse is even possible.

But they do abuse their power. Probably not every time someone has said they did. But there is a 100% certainty that some NBA official at some time decided who would win a game before the opening tip.

I am pretty sure that is not what happened in the begining of the Dallas game. I am 100% sure that is what happened after Mauer got upset. After a certain point in the game Mauer was not going to let Portland win just to spite the fans booing him.

 

People still watch WWE. I just find the premise of this thread ridiculous. I can't remember a time where Jordan or Kobe had to fight through shitty reffing.

 

Honestly, I don't get what's with all the whining. No offense to anyone, but it seems like many of the threads and comments in here are nothing but complaning/bashing the refs. Now we've gotten to the point where we're actually comparing the NBA to the WWE. I'm not saying that there aren't crappy refs. But if there was a time when there was some seriously questionable calls that tried to steal the game from us, that would be the past couple games. Friday, we couldn't keep our cool, and lost a close one. Sunday, we kept our cool, and made free throws down the stretch. Night and day difference. Besides, if the refs really wanted to screw us over, they could have gone all "no call for Durant" style, and not given Martell 3 FT's. Just sayin'

 

That was my thought. The Lakers were basically not playing for anything (battle with Orlando but whatever). So they they are risking Kobe and company on a meaningless game. I say make it a real risk for the Lakers and put in the rookies and Howard to start creating hard fouls.

If Kobe gets hurt against the Blazers, Jackson would be labeled an idiot. But he probably risked it because the Blazers aren't a physical team. Bodies start flying around in the paint and maybe Phil takes a differenet approach to the game.