Casualty of the lockout: Officiating

[Rondo2287]

I'm sure others here have noticed how terrible the officiating has been early on this season.  Part of me has to wonder if some of these guys needed more preseason games to get warmed up for the regular season when it came to reffing. 

Or are these guys really that bad?

Or do they have dirt on Stern and therfor can't get let go.

[Rondo2287]

Also, I know its cliche to complain about officiating after the celts lose two in a row, but there have been some absolute head scratchers so far this year.  Calls that cross the boarder from bad calls to making you wonder whats really going on.

[Smokeeye123]

NBA Officiating is pathetically, horribly bad. NFL refs have improved leaps and bounds and now have guys upstairs to help them out in addition to coaches having challenge flags. MLB umps are good but don't have to make as many important close calls. NHL refs are fantastic and are probably the best out of the bunch.

[nickagneta]

When Chris Mannix is tweeting during a game that the Celtics are getting screwed on calls and non-calls and when all three TNT announcers on three consecutive calls are saying that the fouls or non-calls were atrocious(even worse given that a rookie was getting calls reserved for Wade and LeBron), then you know something is up.

If we see a similar pattern tonight, I think Doc or Danny or KG are going to say something about it in their post game presser and get fined. The seemingly obvious anti-Celtic bias by the refs in these first two games is being noticed by more than Celtic fans, Celtic players, and Cletic coaches. The media is starting to pick up on it too.

[Rondo2287]

Pretty good article here,

http://www.rantsports.com/courtcrusades/2011/12/27/miami-heats-key-to-defense-the-refs/

[Lord of Mikawa]

I'd say bad on purpose. A lot of our favorite superstars need help and the NBA gives it to them in the form of refs. Somebody scoring 20 a night doesn't really compare to 30+. Not to mention you can't build a "brand" on being average when guys like Bird, Magic, and Jordan came before you.

[Jon Niednagel]

I think it has been more favoritism for the younger "showcase" teams than anti-Celtic bias. Either way the last two games have had more than their fair share of head scratchers. Marquis has been especially picked on more than any other on this team in my opinion (Pavs is a very close second). He gets mugged on the offense all the time and is routinely whistled on the other end for just breathing. Not sure what he did to deserve that other than have the audacity to play opposite of Melo and LBJ.

[jgod213]

I've always maintained that officiating the game of basketball is the toughest gig in sports.  Everything happens so fast, yet it's the job of the ref to see every subtle nuance of player contact and essentially make a judgement call from an off-angle.  It's impossible to ref a basketball game perfectly.

That said, i was very dissapointed in the officiating last night.  I can't recall if it was Dan Crawford or Olandis Poole, but the charge call on Bass, taken by Cole, was one of the worst calls i've seen over the past several years.  No obstructed view, just an official getting caught up in the atmosphere of the game.  If i remember correctly, the Heat hit a 3 after that, making that call a 5 point swing.  You know you''ve missed an easy one when Steve Kerr flat out lables it a "horrible call."

[RebusRankin]

Bavetta is 72. Joey Crawford is 60. You can't tell me they can keep up with athletes so young. Do they test officials for eye sight, hearing, mobility?

[MBunge]

The arbitrary nature of NBA officiating has been getting worse for the last several years and the media and even players and coaches have been looking the other way.  The media does it because the NBA tells them to, coaches and players do it partly out of fear and partly because they always hope the next bad call will benefit them.  Look no further than some of those technicals handed out in the first game against the Knicks.  Rather than blasting the ref for T-ing guys up for no good reason, the announcers talked about how players have to know that you can't even look crosswise at this particular ref or you'll get a technical.  That means everybody knows the guy is too liberal with T's and no one will do anything about it.

Mike

[dark_lord]

this isnt anything new....nba refs have sucked for a long time

[Tgro]

I cant remember the exact play or the exact details. I want to say Rondo was driving to the basket and Bosh arm hooked him so bad he about turned Rondo around but Rondo had the presence of mind enough to complete the bucket. When he was shocked he got no foul he started complaining as he was going back on defense and got T-d up. That was pathetic.

Another time I forget, but someone on the Heat's team drove to the basket. I think it was Daniel's went straight up in the air and never touched anything. They wistled us for a foul and then Doc got a T for getting upset about it. When it was showed on replay, you could clearly see the player wasn't touched at all and the announcers on TNT were stating it was a bad call.

If you're going to call stuff like that, call it on both sides of the ball. When the 1st quarter was over and they came back from commercial Doc was talking about the quarter and saying the Heat was getting calls. He'd like to see a few for our side. It was blatant. Call it both ways or don't call it at all. The refs are affecting outcomes of games. The Heat ARE good enough that they don't need the Ref's help. The Celtics had it hard enough as it was but still may have been just about even in terms of the score if not for some amazingly bad calls. If this kind of stuff continues to happen then I will start believing the season is rigged and the Celtics are not going to get any calls.

The calls are so bad that it's making the NBA lose credibility. There needs to be a checks and balances system. A way of keeping things fair. The calls we've had against us in these 1st two games have been criminal. I don't want to blame the refs for us being 0-2 but I'd think we'd could just as easily be 2-0 if the refs would just call a fair game.

[TheTruthFot18]

Not that I support it at all, but the make up call was obvious last night.

The "charge" by bass or rondo in the 2nd half which was clearly a block, even tnt analysts agreed then when a block was called on miami, unfortunately it was a charge. maybe fair, but it could be fixed.

Instead of split second decisions, refs should at least take a second to analyze it and at least concur with the other refs. Not a replay for every foul/ close call but just a better eye for the entire game.

I mean, did anybody see crawford or bavetta call that foul on bosh going for a layup/ dunk before a foul could have even really happened and even after it was a terrible call. he straight up anticipated it and unlike the nfl, it seems calls in the nba rarely get called back (for poor officiating).

[Junkyard Dawg]

officiating is bad more often than not.  the C's have gotten hosed the first 2 games but there have been games in the past where they've been overall beneficiaries.

to me, you can either come up with a system where referees are held to some kind of account; joey crawford T'ing up Tim Duncan while sitting quiet on the bench, then getting a one game suspension comes quickly to mind.  he should have been fired and banished from society for that one.  OR you can just let them play, which forces teams to play defense and gets rid of star treatment, which will never happen.  so to me, it has to be the former.

[Kiorrik]

When Chris Mannix is tweeting during a game that the Celtics are getting screwed on calls and non-calls and when all three TNT announcers on three consecutive calls are saying that the fouls or non-calls were atrocious(even worse given that a rookie was getting calls reserved for Wade and LeBron), then you know something is up.

If we see a similar pattern tonight, I think Doc or Danny or KG are going to say something about it in their post game presser and get fined. The seemingly obvious anti-Celtic bias by the refs in these first two games is being noticed by more than Celtic fans, Celtic players, and Cletic coaches. The media is starting to pick up on it too.

Yeh Nick, I doubt it'll be that bad today for a simple reason: it's the Hornets.

IF the league is fixed:

The league has no stake in a Celtics vs Hornets game. They need the Heat in the finals, and thus they make them win against top-notch teams where they need a little extra help, but the Celtics don't need any help. If anything, it'll be the other way around: they need the Celtics to stay relevant enough to pose a perceived threat in the post-season, so the "heroic Heat" can defeat those bullies. Thus they'll be allowed to play decent D, get away with some bad calls, heck they might even get a bunch of makeup calls for yesterdays bad effort.

And there's the sucker-punch: we get the makeup game against the flippin' Hornets.

Yay¿

Sigh.