Ime brought up the fact that tonight's preseason loss to Miami was in large part due to the fact that the players got too preoccupied and upset about perceived non-calls from the referee and Miami capitalized as a result.
MIAMI — Midway through the third quarter of the Celtics’ 121-100 preseason loss against the Heat on Friday, Boston forward Grant Williams was called for an illegal screen and he was not happy about it. He spun around and waved his arms in disbelief, but the officials did not wait for him to protest. They handed the ball to the Heat, and the game rolled on.
Seconds later Bam Adebayo, who was being guarded by Williams, raced up court and threw down a two-handed dunk before Williams could catch up. Celtics coach Ime Udoka said earlier in training camp that he does not want these Celtics to get caught up in complaining to officials. In this case, he instantly called timeout and took Williams out of the game.
“The main thing, I’m telling him to get back and stop worrying about the referee,” Udoka said. “Your guy is bringing it right behind you.”
Udoka said the fact that Williams picked up his fourth foul factored into his decision to send him to the bench, but he acknowledged that the whining was the primary reason. And Williams was not alone. Udoka said Miami’s second-quarter run was the result of the Celtics lack of focus defensively when they were preoccupied with the officiating.
“Just a learning moment,” he said. “You can’t get caught up in that. You have to play through it, just like they did. They played with pace. When we cried about calls, they were running out and got too many easy looks. So something like I said we talked about early in camp. It’s something I’m going to keep hammering away on until we get where we want to be.”
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/10/15/sports/with-handful-regulars-sidelined-celtics-close-preseason-with-loss-heat/
I’ll be interested to see if he benches Tatum when he complains to the ref, which he tends to do quite a bit. Believe I saw it a few times last night alone.
I felt this should of happened last game. Tatum lost xcontrol and wasn't getting back on defense to complain. Tatum even got a Tek and warned multiple times.
We know the refs can be terrible but you can't cost the team even more by sitting there complaining allowing a 5 on 4.
As fans we all love to scream and yell at the ref when there's an injustice committed, because we're not actually out there and it's fun to have a target to blame for some perceived unfairness. But I think when you're actually playing those non-calls, while unfair they may be, are things that can distract your concentration if you let them. While you're complaining and feeling robbed the other team is already on to the next play. I just think some of our players have spent too much time growing up watching LeBum and others complaining about calls and are trying to play that same game. LeBum is the best at moaning for ref calls but he can maintain his concentration on the next play.
I generally put ref calls in that "out of my control" bucket, whatever they call they call, just deal with it and move on to the next play because the other team is moving on. Complain if you want but focus on the next play instead of standing there arguing with the ref while the ball is already being inbounded by the other team. You can see it in sports in general, tennis, football, hockey, soccer...once you get too distracted and frustrated by having a "we wuz robbed" feeling you start to lose concentration and it gives the other team a huge advantage. I support what Ime is doing, I don't want us to be a team of complainers, once you get that rep in the league no ref will give you the time of day.
Topic: Ime: "We’re not going to be a team that cries the whole time [about ref calls]" (Read 7495 times)