Were the refs that bad or did the Celtics force their hand?

[nickagneta]

First off let me say that I think it was a combination of both. The refs last night were about as bias against a home team as I think I have seen in this league for a long, long time. Time after time contact against the Celtics on their offensive end would just be ignored whereas the same or less blatant contact would go uncalled in the Cleveland offensive end. It got so bad that the bit of a scrum that ensued on Baby's take down of Vareao and Varejao's Oscar worthy over reaction to it was directly attributed to the refs letting matters getting out of hand.

And why were they out of hand for a decent part of the second half? Yes, it was because of the refs inability to protrude their breath through that shiny whistle but it was also do to the way the Celtics decided to play last night. Our boys came out of the locker room with an attitude and knowing they were short handed decided that if Cleveland wanted the win that bad then they were going to have to beat the Celtics up in order to have it.

From the get go Baby and Perk established that every rebound was going to be in play. There was going to be no shooting and running the other way tonight. And defensively Ray, Rondo and Pierce were all collapsing in, shielding their guys from the defensive board and helping out there. Bodies were on bodies, the elbows were up, and contact and energy and hustle were going to be the order of the night, win or lose.

The Celtics deserved to have a lot of fouls called on them last night. They were the aggressors. They initiated the contact and kept itup. It got to the point were the refs had to swallow the whistles because otherwise the game would still be being played due to the abundancy of calls.

Where the refs screwed up, and where the refs almost always make the calls but didn't tonight, was where they almost never called the retaliation foul. So, so, so often in this game the initiating contact is never called and the retalitory contact is. Not last night. On the Celtic offensive end the whistles were eaten on the retaliation and it made for some of the more ridiculous no calls we have seen in some time.

Then of course, because the Celtics are known for never keeping their mouths shut after a few bad calls what happened? There were just some stupid calls against the Celtics on their defensive end. I went apoplectic on the call against Moore where Williams attempted to clothesline Moore's mid section with his left arm while dribbling around Moore with his right. Ny son literally fell off the couch laughing at what a horrendous call that was. The Leon basket that went in after LeBron held his arm down while shooting it that didn't get called while Varejao got a call immediately at the other end by taking a reverse layup and getting "fouled" by Ray Allen when replay showed Allen clearly didn't touch him was just as comically sad.

yes the refs were bad, really bad. But the Celtics did cause a lot of it with their aggressive play, their energetic attemptsat rebounding, and their refusal to lay over for King James and the David Stern trio in black and white.

[tb727]

Other than the Lakers game at home I think that was the worst officiated game of the season.  I'm not one to ever bring the refs into the equation because there's bad calls going each way, but last night was ridiculous.

[Drucci]

Well, I think the officiating was really bad last night. Except at the beginning of the game when the calls were made equally for both teams. But after BBD's flagrant 2, it was obvious that whenever Varejao was shaking his arms or his head just a litte bit after a miss or a rebound, the referees were calling a foul. The problem is that when the Celtics were doing the same thing (being aggressive and attacking the paint), the refs were not calling fouls! It became more and more obvious throughout the third and the fourth quarter, and I began worrying when I saw that the Cavs were coming back in the game, in part thanks to the referees. I mean, whenever a Cavalier was rushing into a Celtic defender, the refs were calling a blocking foul... I remember pretty well such a bad call on Mikki Moore, when Mo Williams went straight up against him late in the game.

So, the Celtics' win is even more valuable because in the absence of Garnett and despite this poor officiating, they were able to keep their lead, to make their shots and to defend well. But it was really frustrating to see Pierce or Powe get "punched" in the paint and not getting any calls... The C's were as agressive as the Cavs, if not more, so the calls should have been made for them.

The free-throw disparity of the game says it all : 38 FT for the Cavs, 12 for the C's! Come on! Just by reading the scoreboard we could think that the game was played in Cleveland...

[connerhenry43]

Other than the Lakers game at home I think that was the worst officiated game of the season.  I'm not one to ever bring the refs into the equation because there's bad calls going each way, but last night was ridiculous.

word for word, what i said last night, other than the LAL game, this was the worst officiated game i have seen all year.

[rickyfan3.0...]

I think the officiating got bad when we got the big lead...

38-12 free throw disparity is ridiculous for the world champs at home.

The big problem is that there is clearly some sort of mandate to give home teams the calls, which obviously hurts us on the road, quite often. BUT, when we are at homne, we don't need those calls. So it seems like we are never getting calls.

[ManUp]

The refs were that bad. My biggest issue with the Refs is how it sometimes seems as if they're callingg two different games, where each team is playing by two different set of rules. When Leon can get mugged, but Ray can't breathe on Varejao it makes it hard to not feel like they have an Agenda. It's especially hard not to feel that way when it always seems to happen against the media darlings.

[2short]

Congress should look into this 
Seriously I agree to officiating was horrible, moore "foul" stands out.  I think the nba hasn't had true officiating since bird/magic era.  Refs bent rules for jordan and whoever was popular.
Just think if the fts were a bit more even we would have BLOWN them out without one of our better players and 2 good role bench guys.

[Norcalceltic]

Other than the Lakers game at home I think that was the worst officiated game of the season.  I'm not one to ever bring the refs into the equation because there's bad calls going each way, but last night was ridiculous.

Exactly. With calls like that, Home Court Advantage won't matter. Maybe the League wants to see a Lebron vs Kobe Finals? E!SPN would have a field day with it.

[RMO]

Just think if the fts were a bit more even we would have BLOWN them out without one of our better players and 2 good role bench guys.

And would've been able to play Pierce a lot less than 45 minutes.

[Vermont Green]

No one wants to go on a rant and sound like Tommy but "gimme a break".  What has always bugged me about the NBA is the reputation fouls.  Guys like Perk and Mikki Moore have no chance.  They get near someone and it is always a foul on them.  I think one of the worst calls was an offensive foul on BBD early in the game where the contact came two steps after he had passed.  I think that was reputation.  Right now (due to injuries), we have a lot of guys on the court at any given time that always seem to get the fouls called on them.

We all know that this works for us sometimes too.  Pierce certainly get a ton of calls because he is a star and has a reputation for drawing fouls (although not much of that last night).

Overall last night, it just did not seem equal.  I kept switching to ESPN to hear what they thought on the calls and generally Hubie Brown agreed with the refs except for a few of the really bad calls.  I thought F-2 call on BBD was fair, bad luck for BBD but fair for how they call that.

[cordobes]

I also think it was a combination of both. You make a good description about what was going on, although IMO it only happened for a limited period of the game.

Let's not forget Thibodeau belongs to the Riley/Harter/Van Gundy school of thought. As their old axiom goes "they can't call a foul every play down the court"... On the other hand, the Cavs were very soft yesterday. That's what explains most of the FT disparity. But for some time, and during an important part of the game, the refs were over-rewarding the Cavs softness or over-punishing the C's toughness, proving the aforementioned axiom is not always true. 

[cdif911]

did anyone watch on ESPN? Just wondering if they addressed the discrepency at the line - also can an announcer get a technical or fined by the league?

[Cman]

did anyone watch on ESPN? Just wondering if they addressed the discrepency at the line -

In the second half of the game the ESPN announcers mentioned something about the large FT discrepency, and that is was especially surprising given that the Celtics had more points in the paint.

(question: did the Cs have more attempts in the paint as well?)
Agree with everyone above about the horrible refereeing.  All one wants is consistency throughout the game and on both ends of the floor.  Kudos to our guys for not letting the bad calls affect their play.  If anything, they seemed to relish being the "underdog".

[RAcker]

It was bad...period. This is my theory and has been since early in the season: A lot of soft teams complained to the league about how "rough" the C's are and Stern saw an opportunity to "play commissioner".  The refs have received a directive to "clean up Boston's play".  That's the way I see it on a hunch.

[Spfldkid]

That game was the worst one sided I have ever seen....The C's didn't get ANY calls down on the offensive end, and then to cap it off they started calling mock calls on the C's just to show them they didn't care....Mo jumped into Mikki and floored him on a 3 pointer late in the 4th, so they call it on Mikki, Ray got mugged on the off end, Ray got called......it should have been at least even, if not 10-15 more for the C's....Remember, the NBA refs already proved they like to take a pay off here and there...you think it was ONLY THE ONE GUY STILL...? The NBA refs either really stink, or at the very least put too much of their own ideas on who should win into the game. Transparent...isn't that it....