Two Words: The refs

[Drucci]

TP FL, my thoughts exactly.

And I would add that many non-calls were in favor of the Hawks (traveling, turnovers not whistled, etc). They don't appear in the boxscore but they did exist.

I can't blame the Celtics for losing their mojo in the 4th. I was surprised that Rondo didn't try to do more though, by attacking the paint but... back to back +40 minutes game, it's understandable, especially when Thibs didn't make a single substitution. The Celtics starters basically played 18 straight minutes after Doc's ejection.

[connerhenry43]

The strange thing is that if you read through the Hawks boards, they felt that the game was being called one sided toward FOR the Celtics.  They complained the whole game about getting no calls. http://celticsgreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/comments-from-other-side-hawks-111.html 

It's just funny to hear both sides saying that they aren't getting any calls.  There were bad calls and no calls on both sides.  I can think of one where Big Baby slammed into the back of Horford causing him to lose his handle on the ball.  The refs gave possession to the Celtics and didn't call the foul, leaving Horford to look around for the bus that hit him. 

But, the stats at the end showing the free throw disparity in favor of the Hawks would lean toward the fact that the Celtics fans have more of a case than the Hawks fans that the calls were more one sided in favor of the Hawks than for the Celtics.

The refs influenced the game by changing the momentum with those T's on Doc and Hill.  The Celtics had an 11 point lead and momentum.  The Hawks got 5 free throws and possession.  That shifted momentum.  Most importantly, the head coach was gone and that affected the game more than anything. 

Thibs opted to keep the starters in the entire second half.  Doc was tossed at the point where he usually gives the starters some rest. When he got tossed, I'm sure Thibs wanted to leave the starters in to try to get some momentum back and when they never did, he never made the substitutions. Scal had also been more effective against Smith than Baby was but they went with Baby the rest of the game as well. 

In the 4th quarter, we had players in there at the end who had played 40+ minutes the night before (back to back, remember?) and had played the entire second half with no rest and they just didn't have legs under their jumpers and simply ran out of gas.

I honestly cringe every time I see Bennett Salvatore as one of the refs.  He has a history of making horrible calls at very crucial times.  He let his ego get in the way in this one and called two very quick T's on Doc and another on Hill that changed this game.  From there on, it was miscues by the asst. coaches and fatigue in the players.  Just my thoughts on this. 

there are hawks fans? who knew?

FSN showed a few there last night and i was thinking there are as many hawks fans here as they get down in Atlanta.

any hawks fan who was not happy with the officiating is a fool. the game was given to them in the third quarter like nothing i have ever seen before. this is what happens when you have a ref fixing games, and the media essentially gives the nba a free pass. the same behavior and tendencies are allowed to fester. if the media had gotten on the donaghy story like they should have, the nba may have had to clean up the officiating. the media kisses stern's rear end, allow him to bury the story, lets the story go, and now look what happens? refs like bavetta and salvadore are still around. you have three refs openly pulling for one team and handing them a win.
 
last night was a disgrace to organized sports everywhere. i wish the flagrant foul was the only bad call of the evening.

[youcanthandlethetruth113]

The refs were indeed terrible tonight.  I think a lot of things contributed to the loss tonight, but the refs certainly didn't help matters. 

Roy, I totally agree.

The refs certainly didn't help, but the Hawks shot the lights out when they needed to. At the end of the day I have no problem losing to hail-mary prayer after hail-mary prayer but it's unfortunate it's happened in two games so close together in the season (both vs. Atlanta obviously). They can't shoot like that for 4 games so it doesn't matter anyways

[Drucci]

If anybody had a doubt about the biased officiating, here is why Armond Hill got a tech according to Scal : “He just said, ‘Baby fouled him on the way up,’ ” Brian Scalabrine said, “and he got it”

So, an assistant coach says nothing that deserves a technical, and yet he gets called for a technical when you never see assistant coaches getting called for T's... I guess the Hawks needed one more free-throw in that stretch.

[BballTim]

The strange thing is that if you read through the Hawks boards, they felt that the game was being called one sided toward FOR the Celtics.  They complained the whole game about getting no calls. http://celticsgreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/comments-from-other-side-hawks-111.html 

  How bright are these Hawks fans? Is this like in '08 when the Lakers fans thought they had a better defense than us because none of them understood what defensive efficiency is?

[mmbaby]

Two things not mentioned here:
I think one of the reasons for losing their momentum was being afraid of getting even more phony foul calls, so they were backing off a bit.
Secondly, most coaches complain after a bad call and can sometimes inspire the ref to change a call this way. I can totally understand calling a technical if a coach will not shut up, but they called the first technical on Doc only a few seconds after he complained, not giving him a moment to complain. And then for some reason calling a second tech! How absurd!!! The calling of the third tech on the assist. coach was double absurd.
This game, IMO, was either rigged or someone was hating someone somewhere and getting even.

[nickagneta]

Two things not mentioned here:
I think one of the reasons for losing their momentum was being afraid of getting even more phony foul calls, so they were backing off a bit.
Secondly, most coaches complain after a bad call and can sometimes inspire the ref to change a call this way. I can totally understand calling a technical if a coach will not shut up, but they called the first technical on Doc only a few seconds after he complained, not giving him a moment to complain. And then for some reason calling a second tech! How absurd!!! The calling of the third tech on the assist. coach was double absurd.
This game, IMO, was either rigged or someone was hating someone somewhere and getting even.

Or incompetence. Though now that Tim Donaghy has been convicted of gambling crimes as a referee and written his tell all book, the rigging of games and vengeance excuses sound as good as any other reason why the refs were so awful last night.

[jdpapa3]

I have to say that I wish our team would keep its composure a bit more after feeling like we have been snubbed by the refs. Guys like Perk seem to not play as well after questionable calls. Rondo and Ray seem to stay the course, while the rest of the team seem to lose the fire.

[liam]

I have to say that I wish our team would keep its composure a bit more after feeling like we have been snubbed by the refs. Guys like Perk seem to not play as well after questionable calls. Rondo and Ray seem to stay the course, while the rest of the team seem to lose the fire.

It's hard to know how to play when you don't know what a foul is or a moving screen( The Hawks whole offense) or if you get whacked everytime you go to the hoop with no call( See Rondo) The Refs ruined this game.

[mmbaby]

Two things not mentioned here:
I think one of the reasons for losing their momentum was being afraid of getting even more phony foul calls, so they were backing off a bit.
Secondly, most coaches complain after a bad call and can sometimes inspire the ref to change a call this way. I can totally understand calling a technical if a coach will not shut up, but they called the first technical on Doc only a few seconds after he complained, not giving him a moment to complain. And then for some reason calling a second tech! How absurd!!! The calling of the third tech on the assist. coach was double absurd.
This game, IMO, was either rigged or someone was hating someone somewhere and getting even.

Or incompetence. Though now that Tim Donaghy has been convicted of gambling crimes as a referee and written his tell all book, the rigging of games and vengeance excuses sound as good as any other reason why the refs were so awful last night.

True! I didn't even stop to consider incompetence. It's just a darn shame. We should have won. And had T.D. not been caught, we'd surely be less likely to consider lack of integrity.

[Kiorrik]

My brain is having issues wrapping itself around seeing "TP FL" in non-game threads.

That said, I have to agree with just about everyone:
- The refs screwed with the games momentum
- The calls were bad all around
- The worst calls were made in the Hawks favor
- Starters should have gotten rest
- I too cringe when I see Salvatore

[jdpapa3]

I have to say that I wish our team would keep its composure a bit more after feeling like we have been snubbed by the refs. Guys like Perk seem to not play as well after questionable calls. Rondo and Ray seem to stay the course, while the rest of the team seem to lose the fire.

It's hard to know how to play when you don't know what a foul is or a moving screen( The Hawks whole offense) or if you get whacked everytime you go to the hoop with no call( See Rondo) The Refs ruined this game.

Yea, I hear ya liam. I am always adamant in these types of threads about how much I hate the refs so I decided to look at it a different angle this time.

Salvatore is at the top of my sketchy list. He is either crooked, has a vendetta against the Celtics, or is a poor excuse for a referee. I love posting that clip where he gives Iverson a T for pumping his own crowd up and then adds on a T to Larry Brown for saying basically nothing (similar to last night, wouldn't you say) They compound their mistakes with even more mistakes.

I bet if Doc could pick 3 refs to not do his games, it would be Kennedy, Salvatore, and Bavetta. Ironically: 3 guys the NBA considers their cream of the crop and puts them on the playoffs and Finals games.

[Bahku]

I have to say that I wish our team would keep its composure a bit more after feeling like we have been snubbed by the refs. Guys like Perk seem to not play as well after questionable calls. Rondo and Ray seem to stay the course, while the rest of the team seem to lose the fire.

It's hard to know how to play when you don't know what a foul is or a moving screen( The Hawks whole offense) or if you get whacked everytime you go to the hoop with no call( See Rondo) The Refs ruined this game.

Yea, I hear ya liam. I am always adamant in these types of threads about how much I hate the refs so I decided to look at it a different angle this time.

Salvatore is at the top of my sketchy list. He is either crooked, has a vendetta against the Celtics, or is a poor excuse for a referee. I love posting that clip where he gives Iverson a T for pumping his own crowd up and then adds on a T to Larry Brown for saying basically nothing (similar to last night, wouldn't you say) They compound their mistakes with even more mistakes.

I bet if Doc could pick 3 refs to not do his games, it would be Kennedy, Salvatore, and Bavetta. Ironically: 3 guys the NBA considers their cream of the crop and puts them on the playoffs and Finals games.

Agree ... I used to respect Bavetta, but he's gone down the tubes the last two seasons. Salvatore has always had an axe to grind with the Celtics, as has Joey Crawford, Joe Forte, Eddie F. Rush, Violet Palmer, Bernie Fryer, Bill Spooner, Scott Foster, Ron Garretson, Kenny Mauer, and Olandis Poole. The only ones I trust fairly consistently are Jack Nies, Jess kersey and Joe DeRosa ... though you can't agree with any of them all the time, obviously. But the quality of officiating has taken such a drastic nose-dive of late, that there really needs to be a call for a true shake-down and complete re-tooling ... and soon.

[Kiorrik]

Salvatore is at the top of my sketchy list. He is either crooked, has a vendetta against the Celtics, or is a poor excuse for a referee. I love posting that clip where he gives Iverson a T for pumping his own crowd up and then adds on a T to Larry Brown for saying basically nothing (similar to last night, wouldn't you say) They compound their mistakes with even more mistakes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDM2eGpf5Hc

[mmbaby]

Oh WOW!
What a creepo.
Giving a technical for getting the crowd to cheer? Is that right?