Sad Day in NBA Playoff History as One-sided Officiating Affects Outcomes

[nba is the worst]

I watched all 4 games yesterday, and saw 2 games decided and one impacted by biased officiating:

Mavs shoot 19 fts to 2 for the Blazers in the 4th Q, shots inside 15 ft 10-3 in the Blazers' favor. For the game, points in the paint 46-18 Blazers, Mavs +16 fts, 8-pt "win". Blazers shot 9.4 fts below their season avg, Mavs 6.4 more than their avg.


Heatles shoot 15 fts to 2 for Philly in the 4th Q, shots inside 15 ft 10-3 in the Sixers' favor. For the game, points in the paint 42-32 Philly, Heatles +24 fts, 8-pt "win". Philly shot 7.6 fts below their season avg, heatles 11 more than their avg.

Bulls shoot 7 fts to 3 for the Pacers in the 4th Q, including just an and 1 on what should have been a flagrant on Boozer shoving Hansborough in the back from behind on a breakaway dunk (Hansborough didn't flop, smh - still a flagrant). For the game, points in the paint 44-32 Bulls, Bulls +15 fts, 5-pt win. Rose shot 21 fts (13.1 over his season avg), Pacers' entire team 17 (7.8 fts below their season avg, Bulls 7.5 more than their avg).

Only the Bulls-Pacers game wasn't a complete sham, but there was a lot of contact not called on those 2 "blocks" by Noah at the end...

Props to Nate McMillan for having the guts to take on the commish and the fine he will inevitably receive by pointing out the 19-2 disparity - and no props for Doug Collins' joke about not wanting to be fined sending a similar message.

[fugazzi24]

I love the post, great work on finding stats to back up your ideas. 

I watched almost all of the first two games yesterday and there were definetely a couple of terrible no calls going the way of the favorites.  I did not see to many phantom fouls, just more no calls, especially in the Heat game. 

Unfortunately I think the Celtics are out of favor with the league this year and will probaly need 7 games to beat the Knicks.  I am assuming at least two of the game will be complete whistle washes, where the Knicks shoot a ton of FT's.   

[manl_lui]

I watched all 4 games yesterday, and saw 2 games decided and one impacted by biased officiating:

Mavs shoot 19 fts to 2 for the Blazers in the 4th Q, shots inside 15 ft 10-3 in the Blazers' favor. For the game, points in the paint 46-18 Blazers, Mavs +16 fts, 8-pt "win". Blazers shot 9.4 fts below their season avg, Mavs 6.4 more than their avg.


Heatles shoot 15 fts to 2 for Philly in the 4th Q, shots inside 15 ft 10-3 in the Sixers' favor. For the game, points in the paint 42-32 Philly, Heatles +24 fts, 8-pt "win". Philly shot 7.6 fts below their season avg, heatles 11 more than their avg.

Bulls shoot 7 fts to 3 for the Pacers in the 4th Q, including just an and 1 on what should have been a flagrant on Boozer shoving Hansborough in the back from behind on a breakaway dunk (Hansborough didn't flop, smh - still a flagrant). For the game, points in the paint 44-32 Bulls, Bulls +15 fts, 5-pt win. Rose shot 21 fts (13.1 over his season avg), Pacers' entire team 17 (7.8 fts below their season avg, Bulls 7.5 more than their avg).

Only the Bulls-Pacers game wasn't a complete sham, but there was a lot of contact not called on those 2 "blocks" by Noah at the end...

Props to Nate McMillan for having the guts to take on the commish and the fine he will inevitably receive by pointing out the 19-2 disparity - and no props for Doug Collins' joke about not wanting to be fined sending a similar message.

i also watched all 4 games, however the Bulls and Pacers game wasn't that bad, last 2 minutes Rose just went crazy and was getting hard fouled like crazy. But I agree, Boozers behind the back push is suppose to be a flagrant in my opinion. And Noah's 2 blocks at the end of the game was clean.

Mavs and Portland game was kind of bias in my opinion. It seems like Dirk was cold all night and Portland was up, all a sudden he started shooting FTs to get his rhythm back. Heats...eh idk Philly started out hot somehow lost it, but stormed back and still lost

[scoop1977]

Some teams are better than others drawing fouls. Some teams foul more than others. That doesn't imply bad officiating. FT disparity happens just like a rebounding or FG% or turnover disparities happen.

I agree that the Boozer push on Hansbrough when he was airbone warranted a flagrant, but other than that I don't think the officiating was bad at all.

[pearljammer10]

I see this as a case of good teams settling down against the lesser team, becoming more aggressive and going to the basket. Good teams know how to win games.

[GreenFaith1819]

To me, the two most obvious cases of what the OP stated were from the CHI-Indy and DAL-POR games.

Props to Nate for his comments.

I couldn't help but reflect back on June 17, 2010....Lord I hope Boston's games are reffed fairly this time around.

[RMO]

When using points in the paint to back up the premise of an unfair free throw discrepancy keep in mind that if a player shoots from the paint and gets fouled, unless he gets the and one there is no field goal attempt recorded (and obviously no points recorded either). The points in the paint might lean much more in the Bulls favor if they hadn't been fouled on those attempts and gotten the points at the line (which does not count as a point scored in the paint).

[j804]

You would think Rose is Michael *bleeping* Jordan -Garnett

[slamtheking]

it wouldn't surprise me if there was an officiating bias.  single games can be anomalies during a series but if the trend continues during the playoffs, this would be worth revisiting.   

Personally, I think there'll be a bias towards the glamour teams because they have the glamour players and the fact 'star treatment' does exist in the NBA although Stern would never admit to it.

[incoherent]

So obvious this was going to happen. 

The lower seeds in those games are going to have to play out of there minds to win 5v8.

Unfortunately so aren't we.

[Carhole]

So obvious this was going to happen. 

The lower seeds in those games are going to have to play out of there minds to win 5v8.

Unfortunately so aren't we.

But we are the higher seed? Have we already decided that NY will get all of the calls because it is NY?

[housecall]

TP for the great breakdown of stats,etc.Im more concerned with the C's in the playoffs especially when it comes to playing close games toward the end of games.David Sterns says he doesn't have a horse in the race but if i was a betting man,id  bet the Knicks is his favorite team and im sure all the officials are aware of it.
 Kurt Thomas's whack to the side of Tyler's head/face was downplayed by J.Barry and the announcer as it being unintentional but i didn't see it that away.The Bulls definitely got the better of the officiating but the Pacers basically gave that game away in the last couple minutes by not knowing how to closeout a hard fought game by both teams.

[Tai]

So obvious this was going to happen. 

The lower seeds in those games are going to have to play out of there minds to win 5v8.

Unfortunately so aren't we.

Don't you mean fortunately we don't have to deal with that in the 1st round?

[wahz]

I watched all 4 games yesterday, and saw 2 games decided and one impacted by biased officiating:

Mavs shoot 19 fts to 2 for the Blazers in the 4th Q, shots inside 15 ft 10-3 in the Blazers' favor. For the game, points in the paint 46-18 Blazers, Mavs +16 fts, 8-pt "win". Blazers shot 9.4 fts below their season avg, Mavs 6.4 more than their avg.


Heatles shoot 15 fts to 2 for Philly in the 4th Q, shots inside 15 ft 10-3 in the Sixers' favor. For the game, points in the paint 42-32 Philly, Heatles +24 fts, 8-pt "win". Philly shot 7.6 fts below their season avg, heatles 11 more than their avg.

Bulls shoot 7 fts to 3 for the Pacers in the 4th Q, including just an and 1 on what should have been a flagrant on Boozer shoving Hansborough in the back from behind on a breakaway dunk (Hansborough didn't flop, smh - still a flagrant). For the game, points in the paint 44-32 Bulls, Bulls +15 fts, 5-pt win. Rose shot 21 fts (13.1 over his season avg), Pacers' entire team 17 (7.8 fts below their season avg, Bulls 7.5 more than their avg).

Only the Bulls-Pacers game wasn't a complete sham, but there was a lot of contact not called on those 2 "blocks" by Noah at the end...

Props to Nate McMillan for having the guts to take on the commish and the fine he will inevitably receive by pointing out the 19-2 disparity - and no props for Doug Collins' joke about not wanting to be fined sending a similar message.

Great post, and this is why some of us have relentlessly complained about the Celtics effort. This is why home court matters. Did the Celtics figure they can play just as well away from home? Of course they can, its the dang refs that are so hard to overcome

[Finkelskyhook]

TP for the great breakdown of stats,etc.Im more concerned with the C's in the playoffs especially when it comes to playing close games toward the end of games.David Sterns says he doesn't have a horse in the race but if i was a betting man,id  bet the Knicks is his favorite team and im sure all the officials are aware of it.
 Kurt Thomas's whack to the side of Tyler's head/face was downplayed by J.Barry and the announcer as it being unintentional but i didn't see it that away.The Bulls definitely got the better of the officiating but the Pacers basically gave that game away in the last couple minutes by not knowing how to closeout a hard fought game by both teams.

It would take more than the Knicks being Stern's favorite team for them to win the series against us.  The series is a mismatch if the worst of this year's Celtics teams show up.