I love the Blazers. I hate the league. And here is why: Game 1: Blazers 27 FTA Thunder 23 FTA Blazers win Game 2: Thunder 28 FTA Blazers 21 FTA Blazers win Game 3: Thunder 39 FTA Blazers 24 FTA Thunder score 13 extra points from the line, and they win by 12 points. It's impossible for me to take a league seriously that goes out of their way to influence a game. Paul George shot 17 FTA. Was he really any more aggressive than Dame? Will OKC have to shoot 20 more FTA to get game 4?
Refs call phantom fouls all the time. Canter got picked on yesterday. The league ought to set new standards that interest fans rather than their bottom line.
In all your research did you see if OKC drove to the hoop more in game 3 instead of settling for jumpers. Or in Game and 1/2, did we take it to the rack more than game 3? It's easy, and I see people do it all the time, for people to simply use FT attempts to judge how the game was reffed. In game 3, if we settled for Js and 3s more than driving to the basket, of course we won't shoot as many FTs.
My ass is still sore from the refs in game 3. The OP is just using a statistic to demonstrate what we all saw.
Um, the thunder shot 2 fewer three pointers than Portland did. And actually, if you look at the game cast, the teams shot about the same # of inside shots. And Portland shot 6 more shots (total) in the game....so....
Game 1: Fouls: OKC 26....Port 17 Ft's: OKC 23....Port 27 Points in Paint: OKC 54....Port 42 Fast Break Pts: OKC 16....Port 9 Game 2: Fouls: OKC 27....Port 27 Ft's: OKC 28....Port 21 Points in Paint: OKC 52....Port 44 Fast Break Pts: OKC 11....Port 19 Game 3: Fouls: OKC 24....Port 33 Ft's: OKC 39....Port 24 Points in Paint: OKC 46....Port 36 Fast Break Pts: OKC 10....Port 15 not sure there is anything revealing about that other than Portland having averaged 22 fouls in the first 2 games and 33 in the 3rd. The points in the paint distribution didn't really change, and my eyeball test tells me both teams attacked the paint at about the same rate they did in the first 2 games. Portland shot 25, 32, & 31 three's in the first 3 games so it's not like the Blazers were chucking up three's at a higher rate either to me, it looked like the officials were much more whistle happy in the 3rd game and the fouls they were calling...and not calling...favored OKC to a very noticeable level
It's not just the numbers. The style of a team's play on offense, and the style of the other teams play on defense, can lead to a free throw discrepancy. That's not at all what happened. The game wasn't called the same on both ends. The Blazers deserved as many or more free throws as they did. And I hate to be that guy, but it seemed like it was by design. Nothing too obvious, but subtle and effective over the course of a game.
Curious. Are you looking for all games to have an equal number of fouls and FT's by games end? I mean, I totally get the biased claim, but there are also games where one team does just foul more than another. I wouldn't expect this to happen if that is what you are looking for. This might be a good thread topic all its own... how to fix the NBA foul situation or something, but there are definitely some things to consider. First, the rules are broken in every play. There is player contact from the defender that obstructs the offensive player's movement in every game played in the nba. If the NBA were to start calling every foul, then teams would have all their players fouled out by half time. What does the public and the nba want? DO we want the game to be played verbatim the rules? or are we open to flexibility? Should the rules be re written to keep up with today's basketball? I think this is already happening to an extent. Maybe our resident expert @dviss1 could provide some quality insight on this. If we were to enforce the rules verbatim, then teams would be forced to adjust. This would completely change the game. With that said, we have already gone through a bit of that with the changing of the hand checking rule. It is arguably the biggest factor in why the game has transitioned from big men in the paint dominating to 3pt specialists dominating. And this boggles my mind. One would think that it would be reverse right? Fouls are committed more in the paint, so it should be easier to get inside now. but yet we have become an outside shooting league. So though, I believe the game would change quite a bit if the rules were more adhered to, im not sure which way it will go. So what is it really that you are looking for other than some leave Blazers bias? Games will not always be equal.
The fouls called on the Blazers....the Blazers couldn't even touch the Thunder. The Thunder were allowed to be brutal on defense. It was very obvious. Every time the Blazers made runs, several fouls were called and free throws given to the Thunder to help rebuild their lead. No the foul calls won't always be equal, but I expect them to be fair. This is like watching WWE