It’s ironic the national story is the refs gave the Cs the game

[Big333223]

The underrated story in this comeback is that after Smart got to the rim with 13 seconds left, Houston had to burn two timeouts before they could inbound the ball because the Celtic D was smothering everyone. If the defense doesn't force those timeouts, Houston could have used them after Tatum's dunk or definitely would've wanted to use one to advance the ball after Horford's shot.

The Celtic defense won this game.

[Surferdad]

Sorry didn’t read the whole thread, but the two national commentators I heard today both said the Rockets lost it themselves.

[hodgy03038]

The 2-minute report is stupid. Why not a 5-minute or an 8-minute report? What about the Gordon shoving Larkin a couple times out of the way. How about the charge that was called a block on Baynes (that alone is a potential 4 or 5 point turnaround). All the fouls leading up to the 2-minute mark are okay?

[CactusThomas]

I live in Texas - in the Brazos River Valley.  It's a hotbed for don't-really-watch-NBA Spurs fans and salty Rockets fans.  Hearing them talk about the game is ridiculous. How can any fan of James Harden complain about officiating??  The Rockets entire game plan is to initiate bogus contact to get sent to the line.  I even heard that before the game, Harden spoke to his team and told them (paraphrasing) "Theres only two refs, we need to take advantage of it".

[dreamgreen]

Makes me sick! The refs were in the bag for Houston all game, than they finally call Captain Push Off for doing what he does every play and the refs gave it to the C's???

[86MaxwellSmart]

Makes me sick! The refs were in the bag for Houston all game, than they finally call Captain Push Off for doing what he does every play and the refs gave it to the C's???

pretty much how I saw it.

[crimson_stallion]

http://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/21910742
Talk about tuning in late. That game was one of the worst called games AGAINST the Cs I’ve seen all year.

What about:

- Two bad charging calls against Boston where the rockets were still moving in the first half
- A horrible blocking call on Baynes when his feet were clearly set
- The horrible foul call that led to 4 bogus points because of the technicals on Morris and Brad?

There is NO WAY the refs gave the Cs this game. Harden is a fool for complaining.

Don't forget the ridiculous foul call against Shane Larkin, when he was pressing Harden full court and Harden clearly pushed off aggressively - to the point where Larkin was pushed back a good meter or so. 

The only person the Rockets should be blaming for that loss is Harden.  The Rockets were up by 1 with something like 7 seconds left and possession.  They had this game in the palm of their hands, and Harden committed what has to be one of the top 5 most idiotic fouls I've ever seen in my life to give Boston possession and a chance to take the lead.

Then just when you think he couldn't get any stupider, Houston gets the ball back with a chance to score themselves and make it a game - and Harden does the EXACT SAME THING, only this time even more intentional and even more blatantly obvious. 

This is why the media often question Harden's ability to win a title - because as great as he is, he has an overwhelming tendency to flip his brain over to sleep mode at the end of games.

[crimson_stallion]

The underrated story in this comeback is that after Smart got to the rim with 13 seconds left, Houston had to burn two timeouts before they could inbound the ball because the Celtic D was smothering everyone. If the defense doesn't force those timeouts, Houston could have used them after Tatum's dunk or definitely would've wanted to use one to advance the ball after Horford's shot.

The Celtic defense won this game.

Yep, and one of those was also the fault of Harden, who on one of those plays made absolutely ZERO effort to try and get open.  Ariza had absolutely nobody to pass to, had to burn that last timeout. 

Harden honestly made at least 3 absolutely critical errors in the closing minutes that lost his team this game.  That would be 4 critical errors if not for the fact that his ridiculously ill advised three a few possessions earlier actually fluked it's way in.

Huge credit to Larkin, Rozier, Smart and Morris - all four players were instrumental to turning this game around, and when you have 3rd / 4th tier guys on your team making those kinds of contributions when the game is on the line it's huge.