Defense Is Rewarded With A Personal Foul

[hilltopchamps]

I picked the Celtics to win this series, but unfortunately there were stretches where they did not play well. Years ago in the NBA if you played good defense you were rewarded. If you are the Celtics now and you play defense you pick up a personal foul. The Heat shot 153 free throws in this series to the Celtics 106. What this stat tells me is if you are the Celtics, who do play defense, you get a personal foul. If you are the Heat, who really don't play that much defense, you get to go to the free throw line. Every time David Stern goes to Boston he is booed. So Stern retaliates by telling refs in the playoffs to call the game against the Celtics. Labron James was never in foul trouble the whole playoff series against the Celtics. Dwayne Wade never got more than 4 personals in 2 games. I guess these guys don't play defense. They are rewarded with a victory. The Heat move ahead into the next round. Any time a defender gets too close to Wade or James the whistles blow. The NBA is the equivelent to the WWF.

[PosImpos]

. . . or it means that the Heat have two of the best players in the entire game who can get inside and draw contact at will.  Yes, they get a lot of star calls, but they also regularly blow by their defender and force help defenders to foul them.  The Heat force the refs to call all those fouls.  The Celtics don't really have any players who can consistently get themselves to the line over the course of an entire game.

[JoT]

I picked the Celtics to win this series, but unfortunately there were stretches where they did not play well. Years ago in the NBA if you played good defense you were rewarded. If you are the Celtics now and you play defense you pick up a personal foul. The Heat shot 153 free throws in this series to the Celtics 106. What this stat tells me is if you are the Celtics, who do play defense, you get a personal foul. If you are the Heat, who really don't play that much defense, you get to go to the free throw line. Every time David Stern goes to Boston he is booed. So Stern retaliates by telling refs in the playoffs to call the game against the Celtics. Labron James was never in foul trouble the whole playoff series against the Celtics. Dwayne Wade never got more than 4 personals in 2 games. I guess these guys don't play defense. They are rewarded with a victory. The Heat move ahead into the next round. Any time a defender gets too close to Wade or James the whistles blow. The NBA is the equivelent to the WWF.

I can get the refs at time being bias, but Wade reminds me of Rose. They both know how to get to the line and know how to sell a foul. The Celtics just gve up for I don't know why I guess age and tired legs, but whatever. It becomes a what if and now it's just time to move on.
Also I noticed the Stern hate too. Lakers fans never boo him and didn't last year while I remember watching when Boston won the fans booed Stern.

[jdpapa3]

In the regular season, the Heat got to the line a lot.

Their FTA/FGA ratio in the regular season was .363
Boston in the regular season allowed a FTA/FGA ratio of: .309
Against the Celtics in the playoffs: .420



Boston's offense had a reg season FTA/FGA ratio of .304
Heat in the regular season allowed a FTA/FGA ratio of .222
Against the Heat in the playoffs: .290

I think these numbers show that the Heat got to the line wayyyyyyyy more than the amount you would have expected them to.

[JoT]

Anyways I just came back to say I usually go on a site for boredom, but anyways the topic was whether games were rigged and non Celtics fans and basketball fans in general were saying how DWade got calls for some crazy fouls. People were actually mad that the refs weren't treating the Celtics right in the series. Whether it be because they hate the heat or not. Many are starting to think the super star calls and and the biases are hurting the NBA.
I don't know whether to agree or not since I didn't watch, but many are starting to complain. When Paul got ejected in game 1 Lakers fans were complaining about that.

[PosImpos]

In the regular season, the Heat got to the line a lot.

Their FTA/FGA ratio in the regular season was .363
Boston in the regular season allowed a FTA/FGA ratio of: .309
Against the Celtics in the playoffs: .420



Boston's offense had a reg season FTA/FGA ratio of .304
Heat in the regular season allowed a FTA/FGA ratio of .222
Against the Heat in the playoffs: .290

I think these numbers show that the Heat got to the line wayyyyyyyy more than the amount you would have expected them to.

I imagine they also increased the amount of possessions in which they drove to the hoop and drew contact, probably in large part because the Celtics defense took away their other options.

[jdpapa3]

I imagine they also increased the amount of possessions in which they drove to the hoop and drew contact, probably in large part because the Celtics defense took away their other options.

Or they knew they would get the call most of the time without an actual foul being committed.

[PosImpos]

I imagine they also increased the amount of possessions in which they drove to the hoop and drew contact, probably in large part because the Celtics defense took away their other options.

Or they knew they would get the call most of the time without an actual foul being committed.

Maybe, but that's NBA basketball.  You have stars on your team and you drive to the basket, get contact, and the refs will call fouls. 

Having watched the entire series, I didn't feel like Miami's free throw total was particularly unfair.  There were a decent number of times that I thought Celtics players didn't get the same benefit of the doubt, but they also generally didn't do as good a job selling it as Wade and James usually do.