Stop complaining about the refs...!!! Are you kidding me???

[bfrombleacher]

So Heat fans are talking trash and saying we're whining about the refs. Even our own guys are saying the Heat are the better team and to accept defeat, period.

Are you kidding me? What game were you watching? Is the average Heat fan really that brainwashed by the bullcrap marketing? Or does that prove that most of them never even cared about basketball in the first place...?

At the very least anyone watching the game should have seen the stupid techs. If you don't even see that, then there's nothing left to say.

The third quarter was where the Heat made their run and most of the fouls were called from what I see. Every time we make a run they cut us off with a stupid foul.

Of course, LeBron and Wade getting no fouls helps their case a lot.

A foul is much more than just a number on the statsheet. It kills momentum. Messes with emotions (although I must say our guys controlled it very well compared to last year. Our guys robably accepted the Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. officiating). Gets the crowd riled up. Gets players to the line for free throws.

Sure, we beat ourselves. No execution. Injuries. Only KG showed up in the first, the refs had nothing to do with that.

BUT - didn't you see the run in the second? We were right in there with them. Our resilience and their mental weakness/lack of depth brought us right back. And that was despite of the refs' techs.

Sadly in the end, the refs took too much out of us.

I can only concede that we lost the first quarter. That was our own fault. I will not accept that the Heat are a better team, because they have proven not to be to me.

If there wasn't such an agenda to get the "Chosen one" his first ring and up ratings, I'd pick our team. I saw much more promise.

But, the Heat+the refs are just too much. The Heat+refs are the better team.

...Seriously, what the Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. game were you guys watching for those who say stop whining about the refs?

 Warning: no cursing, use of condescending language.

[indeedproceed]

Locking.

[Leon0]

bumb ubm!

[celtics2]

Any other NBA Coach would have been tossed from that game. The refs do suck. Celtic fans have short memories. That's a serious defect. The Team is soft also along with our fans and posters. We deserve what we get from the Refs.

[ACF]

I think OP had a good post going but good that IP cut down on the bad words. We really don't need them to express our disbelief in this situation. We can just go to YouTube and search for whatever plays we want to see. It's all there. And fans of other teams are acting as if we're saying we were abducted by aliens and used as guinea pigs in their experiments and then we were returned safely to Earth.

Why is it so difficult for people to see what a crook Stern is? He is a good to great business man but these last few years, man... He's been watering down his own product and people (even casual NBA fans) are noticing.

Something shady is going on in the NBA. I will not label it as rigged, manipulated or any other term.

But something shady is definitely going on.

[ACF]

Any other NBA Coach would have been tossed from that game. The refs do suck. Celtic fans have short memories. That's a serious defect. The Team is soft also along with our fans and posters. We deserve what we get from the Refs.

Huh?!!1

[Yoki_IsTheName]

When a call is blatantly missed you have to complain.

As I was listening to Tim Legler on NBA Today, he made some sense as to why we have so many fouls and how it contributed to the loss. Steimer and Dooling had 10 fouls in 19 minutes combined, that's a lot. We get to the penalty quickly which makes them shoot free throws. PLus, Keeyon's ticky tack fouls, oh my lord. You can't complain there.

BUT WHEN A CALL HAS BEEN MISSED, AND IT'S A TURNING POINT OF THE GAME, YOU CAN'T JUST SAY YOU CAN'T COMPLAIN (this is for whoever says stop complaining).

We have a case that we should've won that game if the call was made, Rondo made at least 1 (with how he was playing, he could easily make 2) and our defense is set up and all the pressure is in Miami.

It's a different story if that foul was called.

[feckless]

Anybody ever look into how refs get the job?  My information is from an admittedly unreliable source who claimed to be starting the process,  anyhow what he said is that the process is akin to a form of payola.  You pay big bucks, for years running, to go to "camps" run by officials of the refereeing assoc., retired refs and current refs and they put in the good word for you.  Isn't exactly the best way to achieve the highest level of competency.  Also might explain why refs and officials protect someone they promoted.


  ???anyone know more???

[Celtics4ever]

As a fan you pull for your team.   I don't think even us complainers complain about the ref every game just when we see something fishy.  While, I respect both sides of the fence on this one and I think those defending the refs are just as good as fan as I am, I don't tell them to stop defending the refs or the league.   Is voicing complaint going to help us win, no.  But neither is staying silent.  Are not you angry that Rondo was hit in the face and none of the three refs saw it?   

I think there is zero accountability for bad calls.   But the league fines any player or coach or exec who evens whispers of bad refs.   That ought not to be the case and people ought to be able to voice their opinions freely.  Why does the league try to keep them silent?   Could it be to protect the facade of integrity?

Do you know the league claims they grade the officiating after each game?   There is no way that happens.  Bad refs that blow calls routinely continue reffing.  Any other job with this much incompetence and people would be getting fired.   

I think instant replay really exposes the blown calls than in any other sport.  Also, you can tell by the jumbo-tron when a call in blown by the crowd reaction.

Fouls leveled at one side compromise that team's ability to defend, rebound and take risks.  There are not happening to both sides equally and they do not happen to when we drive to the bucket but they sure as heck happen alot after the HEAT miss.

[RedSpades]

Any other NBA Coach would have been tossed from that game. The refs do suck. Celtic fans have short memories. That's a serious defect. The Team is soft also along with our fans and posters. We deserve what we get from the Refs.

What are you even blabbering about? You say the refs suck than you insult the Celtics' fanbase by calling us soft and that we deserved this treatment?

[FreeGreen]

What makes me angry are people who say, "Oh, you still could have stopped them after the no call on Rondo and come back and scored."

Yeah -- we could shoot 100% from the field and overcome all sorts of officiating nonsense.  That doesn't mean the officials didn't decide the game.

Just because there's some crazy scenario where we can overcome the horrible officiating, doesn't mean the officiating isn't the issue.

For example,
NaySayer:  "well sure the call against Pierce was awful, but Ray could hit a 3, Lebron could miss a layup and a 15 ft jumper, and then you could win in OT."  

See, against all odds we did that ... and then they just hosed us again in OT.

To people who say the officiating is "inconsistent" ... in a game with 75 fouls, inconsistent would be highly likely to consist of bad calls on BOTH sides.  Tell me one bad call that was in our favor ... heck, stealing a page from Doc .. tell me one 50/50 call that went our way?

If this series is 1-1 it's a completely different animal.  Lebron is a known choker ... put him in a pressure cooker Game 3 where the C's can take control of the series and he'd wilt.  (Of course, the refs could just do to us what they did to the Pacers in Game 4 and foul out KG/PP.)

Lebron's a front runner, he's the best player in history when his team is + or - 10.  In between those ranges is where he struggles.  Fortunately for him the NBA has put him comfortably in front with a free roll tonight and in game 4 to lock down the series.

[CelticG1]

You lost me at Heat fans

[CoachBo]

There is a huge difference between complaining about every call and taking issue with calls that CLEARLY have an impact on momentum and a game's outcome, such as the technical fouls and the two blatant misses in overtime Wednesday night.

The bottom line is this: Anyone who is truly a good official, in any sport, will allow the game to be decided on the court, field, etc. Any official who doesn't, whether they intend to or through their own incompetence, isn't good enough to be working the sport in question.

It's always comical to encounter the people who will defend officiating incompetence to the end, often out of some misguided notion that referees, umpires and the like are beyond reproach and deserve respect for their title.

Respect is earned with the quality of your work over time. Affording it automatically with a title is not an opinion I have any interest in listening to. It's absurd.

[wahz]

Ive watched the NBA and been a rabid Celtics fan since getting my first transistor radio and listening to Johnny Most starting in 1968. Many more games were on tv starting in 1972. Much as Stern takes credit for growth, as the world got more and more wired together into the early 80's, the NBA grew rapidly. Here and there there were bad calls, and Most would tell you about them and Tommy as coach in the 70's would glare from the sidelines but you never felt like you lost many games because of them. Not one time do I have any recollection thinking the refs were doing a number on us. Cowens fouled out all the time, but he was wildly aggressive in a way you younger folks will just not understand at all no matter what some of us older folks say. He earned those fouls.
Come forward to the late 80's. Stern is not yet the commish but he's close. The nba is very popular. Every game I go to in Seattle is sold out. Anyone recall Bird getting completely abused with scratch marks all over his back and no calls? There was still no or very little "star" calls.

Stern becomes commish and it all goes to hell. He openly talks about how since the league's players don't wear helmets that its a "star driven league." The refs obviously get some message and when you breath on Jordan he goes to the line. For those of you who fawn all over Jordan, ok, he was great, but boy of boy was he made greater by the protection of him.

To steal a line from another poster here, I LOVE pro basketball but I am not a fan of the current NBA. The refs are a disgrace and Stern is a disgrace and there are some owners whose behavior is disgraceful

[CoachBo]

To a degree, I agree with you. I've already cancelled League Pass, as I've had enough of this aggravation. That's the only thing that will get Stern's attention: Hit him in his wallet.

Amidst all these passionate defenses for Rondo mailing an effort in here and there, I also enjoyed your characterization of Dave Cowens.

I don't think the newer Celtics fans understand the effort, and resulting career-shortening physical damage, that people like Cowens, Russell, Hondo, Bird, McHale put in to wear this uniform. Those guys never took a possession off, and it cost them games and money.