Officiating

[European NBA fan]

I don't get what all the fuss is about.  The Stiemsma offensive foul?  Yeah, he fouled Josh Smith.

  Paul's arm came out and slapped Josh Smith on that move where he drove past him.  Smith made a ridiculous sell job, but it was a foul.

  Garnett called for the illegal pick going through the lane was the worst one, but it certainly had enough contact while moving to be a foul.  

I'm not that upset about it.  

The problem is not that they call these fouls, if they had just called them consistently. Rondo gets touched so many times, that Teague would have fouled out, if they had kept the same standards throughout the game. Josh Smith and Pachulia would probably have fouled out too.

 

[ACF]

What I hate most as other have touched on, is the offensive arm bars that Wade and Lebron do every single play to create space.

All players do this but I think it should be called.. That off arm to protect yourself, when you push it out to create space it actually does create a lot of space and is a foul. I hate that it never gets called.

See Griffin, B. on Gasol, P. Love BG's dunks but he pushes off a lot.

#cashruleseverythingaroundme

[CelticG1]

I don't get what all the fuss is about.  The Stiemsma offensive foul?  Yeah, he fouled Josh Smith.

  Paul's arm came out and slapped Josh Smith on that move where he drove past him.  Smith made a ridiculous sell job, but it was a foul.

  Garnett called for the illegal pick going through the lane was the worst one, but it certainly had enough contact while moving to be a foul. 

I'm not that upset about it. 

Its the timing and inconsistency of the calls. Because they don't show replays of every single play in the game when they do finally show one on a "foul" call of course you are going to see some contact. You don't think that goes on all game? Or pretty much anytime a player drives by another a hook couldn't be called? Or any time someone touches another guy with his hand a handcheck couldn't be called?

[moiso]

The sixth foul against Garnett was so outrageously bad, right up there with the Salvatore offensive foul against Pierce in game 6 in 2008. KG was being held by two different people.

I disagree on the KG foul, he took was too aggressive in the screen for Rondo. He took a chance and got caught,he had a similar call yesterday vs. heat.

Yeah, overall the refs were atrocious but I agreed with the Garnett call.  He has been sticking his arms under the armpits of other players to make it look like he is being hooked.  He did it a few minutes before that to Pachulia after a score and totally had Tommy and Mike fooled- they were calling for a tech on Pachulia, who did nothing.

[CelticG1]

The sixth foul against Garnett was so outrageously bad, right up there with the Salvatore offensive foul against Pierce in game 6 in 2008. KG was being held by two different people.

I disagree on the KG foul, he took was too aggressive in the screen for Rondo. He took a chance and got caught,he had a similar call yesterday vs. heat.

Yeah, overall the refs were atrocious but I agreed with the Garnett call.  He has been sticking his arms under the armpits of other players to make it look like he is being hooked.  He did it a few minutes before that to Pachulia after a score and totally had Tommy and Mike fooled- they were calling for a tech on Pachulia, who did nothing.

?? Watch the Zaza one again. At the very least it was both of them

[CelticG1]

The biggest problem (maybe not biggest) is that the refs blow the whistle too much period.

I wish there was a lot more "play on" during games. Its like since guys have 6the fouls to give they aren't as worried about fouling a guy out.

[CDawg834]

They were bad towards the end but not as bad as people are making.
Having Heinsohn as the broadcaster doesn't help things. The guy sees green things that no one else can (understandably).
There were some bad calls, but Pierce was an easy foul and so was Garnett's.
Steimsma easily clipped Teague on the wrist/hand and you're in denial if you think that wasn't a foul. A few of them were iffy but it's so much harder out there in person than it is with the angles of TV and replay (and Tommy berating anything that goes against the C's).
Bad, but not fixed.
Tough win, heart felt win. Only makes us stronger.

As for the Stiemsma foul on Teague in the 4th quarter, I thought the hand is considered part of the ball?  Hitting him on the arm would be a shooting foul, though, but I thought he got him on the hand.

The whole thing was made even worse by the official waiting a good 2 seconds after the shot to blow the whistle.  My biggest officiating pet peeve is when they wait to see if the shot goes in before blowing the whistle.  It's either a foul or it's not...whether the ball goes in should be irrelevant.  I really can't stand it.

It's only a matter of time before Stiemsma blows up on an official.  Heinsohn's ranting aside, he has been the victim of some truly awful foul calls the past few weeks.

[apc]

this game didn’t break us, and it will make us stronger!
that what we need to take out of this game.

[mgent]

You guys watch Celtics games right?  This happens almost every single week, and has ever since 09 when the Big 3 officially lost their superstar status.  Not always this horrible but I'd say 1 in every 10 is this bad.  And it wasn't even close to the worst game overall.

[OmarSekou]

I agree the officiating is bad, but flopping is the bigger issue to me. Josh Smith got two crucial late game calls that could've decided the game. I'm not sure it would have been as obvious to me if I was in the game refereeing as opposed to watching on tv. But there should be a deterrent to keep guys from doing it.

Why can't they have an anti-flopping commission that tracks flops, posts them online so everyone can see what's being defined as a flop, and then fine players?

[33-00-32]

I agree the officiating is bad, but flopping is the bigger issue to me. Josh Smith got two crucial late game calls that could've decided the game. I'm not sure it would have been as obvious to me if I was in the game refereeing as opposed to watching on tv. But there should be a deterrent to keep guys from doing it.

Why can't they have an anti-flopping commission that tracks flops, posts them online so everyone can see what's being defined as a flop, and then fine players?

I can't believe you beat me to this but it's exactly what bothers me most. I hate flopping in any sport but the NBA seems to be the worst. I wish there could be a post game tech foul/fine imposed and once you're caught a certain amount you get to sit a game or two.
Favoritism is the next biggest thing that bothers me and why watching a Heat game is just so painful to watch. If LeQueen and Wade are even close to somebody the unofficials blow the whistle assuming they must have been interfered with. Steamer is still learning but he never gets the benefit of the doubt.

[prov1ml34]

I don't get what all the fuss is about.  The Stiemsma offensive foul?  Yeah, he fouled Josh Smith.

  Paul's arm came out and slapped Josh Smith on that move where he drove past him.  Smith made a ridiculous sell job, but it was a foul.

  Garnett called for the illegal pick going through the lane was the worst one, but it certainly had enough contact while moving to be a foul.  

I'm not that upset about it.  

The NBA officials almost NEVER call the arm bars and stiff arms driving players use to shove off defenders. Pierce, Rondo, Johnson, Hinrich, every player who dribbled was doing it all night. Call it the same way the whole game or don't call it at all. Only Smith's head being low and exaggerated reaction drew a whistle in this case.

See, this is my whole problem with NBA officiating. Why not call the game consistently the whole game. That means, if you are going to call every little ticky-tack foul, do it the entire  game so the players can adjust play accordingly. Instead, 9 times out of 10 NBA officiating essentially lets certain things go for 40 minutes and then all of a sudden they will start calling stuff the last 8 minutes that they were allowed to do previously.

You can't tell me the discrepancy of fouls was legitimately 12-4 in favor of the Hawks in OT. There is something wrong there.

Refs need to call the game evenly not only from beginning to end but also from one side of the floor to the other. I will still gripe and complain when they call something ticky-tack on one of our players, but I will be able to stomach it a lot better if we get the same call on the other end.

CONSISTENCY is the issue and I don't get why that can't be corrected.  

[angryguy77]

Whats odd about the Hawks game is that they received better treatment than the Heat did the night before.

[Marcus13]

Im not one to blame the refs as an excuse...but the last 5-7 minutes of that game were absolutely awful.  They gave Atlanta every opportunity to win the game but they just couldn't hit a shot.

[elcotte]

Gorman stated during overtime that the foul calls were 12 on Celtics-4 on Atlanta since the fourth quarter started. No way that should have been the case. Atrocious officiating.