When it comes to the NBA Playoffs, teams become extra vigilant about scouting their opponents, studying film and practicing schemes. But, for the Houston Rockets, preparation for the Western Conference Semifinals included petitioning the league over the way it calls fouls — nay, neglects to call fouls, according to Houson — against the back-to-back champion Golden State Warriors.
According to a report by Sam Amick in The Athletic, the Rockets have been on a campaign to get the league to curtail what it deems to be an “officiating advantage” given to the Warriors.
The Rockets have been making a data-driven case with the NBA for quite some time that these Super Team Warriors are getting a major officiating advantage in these heavy-hitter matchups.
The perceived “officiating advantage,” of course, stems from the Rockets’ loss in last year’s Western Conference Finals after being up on Golden State, 3-2.
In The Athletic’s anonymous Player Poll, respondents identified “superstar calls” as a major problem impacting the league. Surely, the reference is to Golden State (and, perhaps, a few other players, too).
Amick further reports, via “sources,” that Houston arrived at the following conclusions about the officiating in last year’s seven-game series:
- The Rockets had “a double-digit point deficit in six of the seven games (and a small edge in Game 2);”
- The Rockets were deprived of 93 points due to non-calls against the Warriors;
- In Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, the Rockets should have finished with 18 more points; and
- Of the 27 consecutive missed three-pointers, two were deemed to have been a result of missed foul calls against Golden State.
In spite of Houston’s campaign to ensure the referees would get whistle-happy on the Warriors, in yesterday’s Game 1 — one in which Houston point guard Chris Paul’s displeasure with the officiating bubbled into two technical fouls and an ejection — things still did not exactly go Houston’s way. Amick reports both D’Antoni and Harden as claiming officials admitted at halftime to missing four foul calls on three-point attempts by Houston’s players.
By the Rockets’ internal count from their video crew, there were eight attempted 3-pointers that should have been fouls in Game 1 – good for 24 free throw attempts that would’ve certainly decided the game.
Safe landing zone
At issue with many of these calls is what the NBA has identified as the need for shooters to have a “safe landing zone,” with encroachment into a shooter’s safe landing zone resulting in a foul. In 2017, Zaza Pachulia encroached into the safe landing zone of Kawhi Leonard, causing him a season-ending ankle injury that changed the fate of the San Antonio Spurs’ postseason run and resulted in Pachulia and his family receiving death threats.
After yesterday’s Game 1 loss, Rockets guard James Harden said:
Call the game how it’s supposed to be called and that’s it. And I’ll live with the results. … We all know what happened a few years back with Kawhi. That can change the entire series. Just call the game the way it’s supposed to be called and we’ll live with the results. It’s plain and simple.
Although Harden has a point about the need to protect player safety, he also has a motive in wanting the calls to go his way, for the sake of wins.
But he is not alone in prioritizing player safety.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr often has stated about injuries that the goal is for two healthy teams to compete and play at their absolute best this time of year. It is hard to imagine any player on any team wishing to see an opposing player go down with injury during the playoffs, so the real issue is with the NBA officiating. As the Rockets’ players said recently, to be the best you’ve got to beat the best, and that means having all players on the floor — they are not alone in this sentiment.
Unfortunately, however, left in the hands of the notoriously inconsistent NBA officials, complaints about foul calls — or lack thereof (whether the foul is about safe landing zones or not) — abound. And the numerous foul calls were a real bummer for NBA fans in Sunday’s matchup, with the likes of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and others sounding off on #NBATwitter.
The NBA’s Last Two Minute report should be interesting, whenever it happens to be released. But even more interesting will be Game 2 on Tuesday (April 30 at 10:30 p.m. ET on TNT).
Too often, league officials “correct” officiating errors by making more bad calls against the other team. If this trend stays on message, expect the Rockets to get all the calls in Game 2 — for the win.
