More on Officiating Complaints
Pacers coach Nate McMillan said Jimmy Butler should have been given a second technical foul, resulting in an automatic ejection, after T.J. Warren’s ejection during Wednesday’s Heat win at Indiana. “They said [Warren] was clapping at Butler, but Butler was also kissing at him,” McMillan said. “None of the officials saw [Butler blowing kisses]. Both guys should’ve been ejected in that situation. Emotions, they’re going to happen.”
Only Warren was ejected, for clapping his hands in Butler’s face after Butler was called for an offensive foul against him. “We needed to see some fight,” McMillan said. “We needed to see some scrap. I like that Warren was trying to get aggressive defensively and Butler reacted to the pressure defense. I don’t think it was anything dirty by Warren. He didn’t slam him to the floor or anything. Butler responded by getting into his face.”
Jay King: Kemba Walker said he thought the ref missed a call, he voiced his opinion and the rest was history. “It was his choice. Obviously it’s on those guys to make a decision. And he made it.”
Jay King: Kemba Walker said it was his first time ever ejected. Pointed out he’s also a two time sportsmanship award winner. Thinks maybe he should get the benefit of a little more leeway.
Will Guillory: The NBA’s L2M report came out and determined that Brandon Ingram was indeed fouled on the final play of last night’s game. pic.twitter.com/WQriV6LEJE
Brad Townsend: @luka7doncic on Rick Carlisle’s assertion that teams are beating the s*** out of him. "It's true, I'm not going to lie, but, you know, it's just basketball. It's a physical game. If the refs see it, they're going to call it. If they don't see it, they're not going to call it. But I've just got to keep going. "
Andrew Greif: A technical foul has been called on Kawhi Leonard. He was being really vocal toward official Eric Dalen earlier, wanting an out-of-bounds call to go the Clippers' way. Doc Rivers spoke to officials at half's end about the tech.
The NBA has seen a rise in offensive numbers over the last 10 years, as the league has prioritized its rules to cater to high-scoring games. While the trend has helped offensive output, it has caught the ire of both Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who hopes to see subtle rule changes going forward. "I would like to see a slight reversal in what we're trying to accomplish as a league," Kerr said prior to Tuesday's game against the Spurs. "I think we've gone overboard in rewarding offensive players. And what I mean by that is we've rewarded offensive players for fooling the officials and attempting to fool the officials."
"I think we need to get back to the point where players need to earn fouls and earn it by beating their man," Kerr said, "and drawing contact in a natural way and not flopping and flailing and grabbing arms and that's going on all over the league. "We have to decide as a league, are we going to call fouls that people would laugh about at a pickup game? That's what we have to decide ultimately. And to me that's where we've gone overboard."
David Locke: Alex Jensen will take over for the Utah Jazz. 2nd time Quin Snyder has been ejected in his career
Scott Kushner: Alvin Gentry ejected. Two techs both called after Hart didn’t get an And-1. But Gentry has been in refs ears all game long.
Kellan Olson: Monty Williams said today he thinks the league did a disservice to Devin Booker for his technical foul yesterday. They were told Booker cussed someone out and Williams and Booker both said that's not the case. Williams said it really bothered him and it wasn't fair to Devin.
Sean Grande: The NBA's L2M report confirms Josh Richardson fouled Jaylen Brown on the Tatum inbound with :25.7 left. The no-call, arguably in a dead-ball situation, instead resulted in a turnover essentially ending the game. The streak of L2M reports making no one feel better continues.
Eric Walden: Joe Ingles, after the OKC loss, on the little things adding up: “Quin’s challenged me personally — (during FTAs), usually I’m arguing with the referee or something when I could get our team into where we want to be. And that’s on me. Little things can help us.” pic.twitter.com/vh1VI2uu7K
The NBA announced Monday that it has denied the Houston Rockets' protest of their 135-133, double-overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs last week. At issue was a James Harden breakaway dunk with 7:50 remaining that would have given the Rockets a 104-89 lead. The ball whipped through the net and back over the rim before bouncing off, and the officiating crew mistakenly ruled that Harden missed the dunk and denied Houston coach Mike D'Antoni's attempt to challenge the call.
The league did announce that it has disciplined all three referees from the game for misapplying the coach's challenge rule. The NBA also said it will work with its competition committee to develop procedures to ensure the situation does not reoccur. D'Antoni was unhappy the officials were disciplined. "I hate it for them,'' he said. "They just made a mistake. We all make mistakes. So I hate it. That's probably the worst part of it. They're trying to get it right, and I'm sure they had good intentions.''
Kayte Christensen: Luke Walton gets first tech of the season after he a no call on Harrison Barnes.
Mark Berman: Mike D’Antoni on #Rockets protest being denied by NBA:”I didn’t think we were going to win. It is what it is.” (On the 3 refs being disciplined) “I hate it for them.They just made a mistake.We all make mistakes. That’s probably the worst part of it.They’re trying to get it right” pic.twitter.com/rusJP4Br14
Tim Reynolds: The Rockets are also out $10,000, the appeal fee.
Jonathan Feigen: NBA denies Rockets protest of loss to Spurs. "While agreeing that the referees misapplied the rules, Commissioner Silver determined that the Rockets had sufficient time to overcome the error during the remainder of the fourth quarter and two subsequent overtime periods."
Ben Golliver: NBA has denied Rockets' protest of recent loss to Spurs. Adam Silver agreed referees "misapplied rules" but determined there was "sufficient time to overcome error" & didn't grant "extraordinary remedy" of protest. Three refs were disciplined for erring on Coach Challenge rule
The Wizards feel like the opposite isn’t happening. Beal gets hit, but it’s not ruled a foul. Then, the same play happens on the other end and Beal ends up getting whistled for hacking an opposing player. “For me, off-ball is something I wrestle with refs all the time about because you’re supposed to have freedom of movement and half the time, I don’t even have freedom to go touch my teammate on the shoulder if I want to,” Beal said. “So, it’s just those things that are frustrating. Things that are blatant, obvious, should be called and (they’re) not called. But us as a team, I gotta be better at being physical, getting more open, stop complaining and we just gotta be better at screening for each other, me setting screens, and just figure out ways. I just can’t keep accepting it.”
Tim MacMahon: Luka Doncic acknowledges that he’s often too animated with officials. “Sometimes I’ve got to calm down and just go to the next play,” he said.
Tom Orsborn: Pop reacts to Rockets protest: "There are calls missed for both teams all through every game. And players miss shots & coaches make bad decisions & you move on. There's never 1 play you can single out & say, ‘That’s the most important thing in the game & that’s why won or lost.'
After officials upheld Toronto Raptors wing OG Anunoby’s charge against still-shuffling Boston Celtics star Kemba Walker on the fourth night of the NBA season, Raptors coach Nick Nurse said from a TD Garden hallway, “I’m 0-for-2 on challenges, and I can’t believe it. I don’t have any idea what I’m doing here. Zero.”
“You see it gradually going up, so I think they are making improvement on successful challenges,” Joe Borgia, the NBA’s senior vice president of replay and referee operations, told Yahoo Sports of the rising success rate for coaches over the season’s first six weeks. “Now, the hard thing about it is, just because they were successful doesn’t mean it benefited them. ... So, I can’t imagine how difficult it is on them.”
Yahoo Sports reached out to all 30 teams seeking input from coaches on their feelings about the challenge through the first quarter of its inaugural season and the strategies they are using to maximize it during this trial campaign. Most declined to go on record, some of whom have publicly denounced it. One coach threw his endorsement behind the newly implemented tactic: NBA Coaches Association president Rick Carlisle. “I believe that any time you have a mechanism that could potentially correct an error in an NBA game that it’s a positive thing,” the Dallas Mavericks coach told Yahoo Sports. “I believe it protects the integrity of the competition, so I like the rule, and I believe as time goes on more and more people will feel the same way.”
Multiple coaches, however, have yet to see the benefit of the challenge. Asked what improvements he might make, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said, “I would tweak it by getting rid of it altogether. “In fact, I would get rid of all replay if it were up to me, because these stoppages in play just aren’t good for the game,” Kerr told Yahoo Sports. (FYI: His five successful challenges so far trail only Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens.) “I’d rather see a good flow in the game. We stop the game for so many reasons, and yet even with replay, we don’t get all the calls right. It’s impossible to get all the calls right in the NBA. It’s such a fast game, and there are so many bang-bang calls that could go either way, so even with replay you see plays on tape all the time that you think you got a raw deal on. In my mind, there should be no replay. “We should just live with the results,” added Kerr.
Tim MacMahon: As @Jonathan Feigen reported, the Rockets are officially filing a protest of Tuesday's loss to the Spurs, sources said. It's to ensure that the league office, which is conducting an investigation, will make a ruling. Deadline to file protest is 48 hours after the game.
Tim MacMahon: Sources: Rockets’ hope is that final 7:50 will be replayed with Houston up by 15 points. Rockets have no expectation that NBA would award them a win based on Houston actually outscoring Spurs in regulation, which was a possibility raised by a Rockets source in wake of the loss.
Jonathan Feigen: Raps coach Nick Nurse seemed incredulous that James Harden was not credited with two points for a dunk. "He should just stand there and say, "Hey, it went in." Yeah it went in. Give him the two points. A lot of people saw it go in.
The Rockets prepared to file a protest of Tuesday’s loss to the Spurs, a person with knowledge of the team’s plans said, with an argument that will cite the James Harden dunk that did not count as an example of a “misapplication of rules.” It will also cite subsequent errors in officials’ failing to grant a coaches’ challenge, though the primary argument is with points not being awarded following a made basket.
Crew chief James Capers, speaking to a pool reporter on Tuesday after the Rockets’ double overtime loss to the Spurs, said after seeing video it was clear that the ball went through the net and the basket should have counted. Capers said the coaches’ challenge was not granted because it was not requested as required within a 30-second window.
Welcome to the opening weeks of the NBA's coach's challenge. ESPN asked head coaches from almost half the league's 30 teams for their input on the challenge system. The views ranged from hostile to constructive, but there wasn't an endorsement to be found. But for all the frustration and bewilderment the new rule has created across the league, don't expect it to go the way of the NBA's synthetic basketball.
Houston had been optimistic in the wake of the loss that the NBA office would take action without a protest being necessary. However, sources said the Rockets are leaning toward filing a protest to ensure that the NBA office will have to make a ruling.
NBA rules require a protest to be filed within 48 hours after a game. Sources said the NBA office has started conducting an investigation that could take longer than the 48-hour window. The Rockets contend that they should either be awarded the win -- because they actually outscored the Spurs in regulation -- or that the final seven minutes, 50 seconds of the game be replayed at a later date. League sources, however, scoffed at the suggestion that the Rockets would be awarded the victory.
The Rockets moved on, arriving in Toronto in time — barely — to see the sunrise on Wednesday. The loss to the Spurs, however, was not entirely behind them. As the NBA began its customary investigation of events that were anything but typical, according to a person with knowledge of the process, the Rockets prepared a protest of their double-overtime loss in San Antonio, unsure if they will file it if necessary.
The Rockets have 48 hours after the game in which to file a protest and will wait for more feedback from the NBA before determining how they will proceed. On Tuesday, on the way to losing a 22-point lead, a dunk by James Harden was disallowed after the ball worked its way through the net and around the front of the rim and nearly in again. The subsequent loose ball was ruled to have gone off Harden. The Rockets still led by 13 with 7:50 to play and were up by 16 shortly after before allowing the Spurs to come back and tie the game and eventually win in overtime.
Albert Nahmad: Rockets have 48 hours (from end of game) to file an official written protest, which must state grounds and include a $10,000 protest fee (refunded if they prevail). Both teams will then need to submit any evidence within 5 days, after which Adam Silver will decide within 5 days.
The Rockets are weighing protesting the game, a person with knowledge of the team’s thinking said, but will wait to hear from the NBA if it rules without a protest. If a made basket was not credited, the Rockets could be given a two-point win in regulation or more likely have the remainder of the game replayed from that point on. In either case, winning a protest is extremely rare. “They said the ball hit James and went back through, so it was goaltending on James,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “So, I said, ‘I challenge that.’ Then, I didn’t get a response. Then, another guy said it wasn’t a goaltending. It went out of bounds on us, so I said, ‘I’ll challenge that.’ I didn’t get an explanation. I got nothing.
The Houston Rockets are optimistic the NBA office will take action after referees mistakenly did not count a James Harden dunk in Tuesday night's 135-133 double-overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs, sources told ESPN. The Rockets are hopeful the league office will either award the victory to Houston due to the Rockets outscoring the Spurs in regulation or order that the final 7 minutes, 50 seconds be replayed at a later date, sources said.
Harden's breakaway dunk with 7:50 remaining would have given the Rockets a 104-89 lead. The ball whipped through the net and back over the rim before bouncing off, and the officiating crew mistakenly ruled that Harden missed the dunk and denied Houston coach Mike D'Antoni's attempt to challenge the call. "When the play happened, Harden goes in for a dunk, and then the ball appears to us to pop back through the net," crew chief James Capers told a pool reporter. "When that happens, that is basket interference. To have a successful field goal, it must clear the net. We have since come in here and looked at the play. He dunked it so hard that the net carried it back over the rim a second time, so in fact it did clear the net and should have been a successful field goal.
According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the most recent example of teams replaying part of a game happened on March 8, 2008, between the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks. Four months earlier, the Hawks defeated the Heat 117-111 at home in overtime, but the official scorer incorrectly ruled that Miami's Shaquille O'Neal fouled out with 51.9 seconds left in the game. The league decided to have Miami and Atlanta replay the final 51.9 seconds before the teams' next scheduled game, and the Hawks ultimately won 114-111.
Officials reviewed the play and agreed that Williams was wrongly called for a blocking foul. What they didn’t acknowledge was the clear charge by Randle, ruling that there was no foul on the play. Randle wasn’t awarded a free throw, but his bucket still counted. This left Stevens flummoxed. Video showed Stevens pleading with referee Josh Tiven before giving up and appearing to say “I’m done with these f---ing challenges. This is unbelievable.”
Harrison Faigen: Danny Green was asked about some calls not going the Lakers' way tonight. "Is that a trap?" He's not getting himself fined.
Before digging into his Thanksgiving meal with family on Thursday, Cleveland Cavaliers head coach John Beilein looked back at the film from Wednesday’s loss against the Orlando Magic. Well, one specific area: The turnovers. Mainly, the seven travel calls against his team. “I have a call in with the league as well and we are going to talk about them,” Beilein said prior to Friday’s matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. "We are going to talk about where the travel is happening. You can see, if you slow it down several times, you can see there’s some. But we didn’t all of a sudden start traveling. It hasn’t been called and it was called. That’s what I think we have to figure out.”
Fred Katz: Brooks on the non-calls late: "I thought DB got fouled on his landing. I thought Isaiah got fouled on his landing…They said he kicked his leg, but I saw the replay and it was a foul, but you don’t get them all. You don’t get them all."
On the one hand, the Lakers' 14-2 start to the season is the best that any of James' teams has ever achieved through 16 games, edging the 2016-17 Cleveland Cavaliers' 13-3 mark. On the other hand, James' 27 field goal attempts without attempting a single free throw was the most shots he's ever taken without earning a trip to the line, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information. "It's frustrating," said Lakers coach Frank Vogel. "LeBron's going to the basket all night long. He took nine 3s, but he's in the paint all night long. ... When your guy's attacking the basket the way he is and getting zero free throw attempts, it's something that can be frustrating."
"I'm living in the paint and if you look at my arm right here, these are four or five [scratches] that happened the last two games, and they weren't called at all," said James, who ended with a game-high 30 points on 14-for-27 shooting.
Gary Washburn: Jaylen Brown on controversial foul on Paul George in loss to LAC: "I touched him but I barely touched him. I'm not trying to get fined but I baaaarely touched him. It wasn't enough to make (the call), I think got bailed out a little bit. It was unlucky." #Celtics
DeRozan, who has been on the tough end of a slew of whistles lately, afterward called the sequence “beyond frustrating.” “I still don’t understand it,” DeRozan said. “I guess I’ve got to get dramatic and flail or something. If we say one thing, we get a technical, but if the refs cost us the game what? We get an apology later on? “It’s bull(expletive) to me.”
Tom Orsborn: DeMar on not getting the call after Hood whacked him in the face: "Yeah, I'm frustrated. I still don't understand it. Clearly, I got hit in the face before anything else happened. I don't know. I guess I got to be dramatic or flail or something." #Spurs
DeRozan was still upset by the call after the game, stating Hood hit him in the face prior to any possible push off. "As soon as we say something out on the court, we get a tech," DeRozan said. "We're held responsible for things we say about the refs, but when refs cost us the game, I don't know what we get. An apology later on after it's reviewed?"
Tom Orsborn: More from a clearly frustrated DeRozan on the officiating: "I guess you got to go out there and flail and flop and sell it these days. That’s what a lot of players are doing, and they get the calls. But you try to be aggressive and physical, I guess that gets overlooked."
Tom Orsborn: Last word from DeRozan: "I’m not a good actor. I am just out there playing hard, and I expect the refs to make the right call. Like I said, I guess I need to take some acting classes." #Spurs
Josh Lewenberg: Once again, Nurse careful with his post-game words, but not impressed with the officiating. On Doncic: "He got all his points from the foul line. I thought he was treated very well tonight."
Tom Orsborn: Upgrading DeRozan's foul against Gordon to a flagrant 1 with 13.9 seconds left in last night's loss to Orlando was the correct call, according to the NBA's L2M report. DeRozan called it a "terrible call." #Spurs
From Hield’s perspective, there’s not much you can do when playing the Lakers at Staples. It’s a familiar refrain for Kings fans still seething over Game 6 from 17 years ago. “One call changed the whole game,” Hield said. “It could have gone either way. It be like that sometimes, when the home team is favored all the time, especially in LA.”
Hield was a bit more unfiltered. He was asked about the lack of free throws by the Kings, and he put the burden on the officials. “The refs don’t call no fouls for us, yo,” Hield said. “I don’t know what to do.”
There won’t be outrage at the level of Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals against the Lakers, but there were plenty of angry Kings after a game in which they shot only nine free throws — two through three quarters. Still, the Kings had a chance in the final seconds before the game was “stolen.” “The game came down to one play,” Hield said. “Sometimes in that situation you’ve got to let the game play out. I don’t think it was a foul the other way. So ask (referee) Rodney (Mott) what he think.”
How he fell — or was tripped by James — depends on which locker room you were in, obviously. “I think we know what’s going on,” Barnes said. “But for us, it’s moving past this, getting better, and that’s all I’ll say about that.” Kings coach Luke Walton was much more diplomatic in discussing the final play. “We ran a play, we had a chance, we didn’t make it,” Walton said. “All we try to focus on as a team is what we can control and what we can control is execution, knocking down shots, making the extra pass.
Jason Jones: Bogi: "It’s always the referee’s decision to call or not call (a foul). Sometimes you get calls, sometimes not. Homecourt advantage maybe? Sometimes it goes like that, you know? But it’s over, we lost this game and we have to be locked in for Boston."
Jeff McDonald: DeRozan also said he was "highly surprised" at the game-sealing flagrant call: "Obviously I went for the ball, and made sure he didn’t get the ball up with the possible chance of an and-1. In my opinion, I thought it was a terrible call."
Several minutes earlier, Beverley expressed displeasure with the officiating. He was particularly perturbed about his sixth foul -- a call made when he bumped chests with Harden away from the ball and about 30 feet from the basket -- and a technical foul he received from the bench with 1:31 remaining. "I got a technical foul because I looked at the ref, I guess, too long, and I guess you can't look at people in this league now," Beverley said. "I don't know. I don't feel like that's fair. As a unit, we work too hard -- coaches work too hard, players work too hard, staff work too hard -- to prepare for each game, and to let a game come down to referees and free throws I don't think is fair. I think we deserved better, I think fans deserved better, and the people who paid their hard-earned money to watch us play, both teams, I think they deserved better also."
Dei Lynam: The NBA L2M report came out a short while ago and said the offensivefoul on Embiid should have been a foul on Jokic with 1.2 on the clock #Sixers
Rick Bonnell: JJ Redick gets a T.
Keith Pompey: Joel Embiid on his controversial offensive foul on the #Sixers' final possession. “I watched the replay, I didn’t really see any push off. If you want to call that foul, especially at that time of the game, I think that’s kind of BS, especially because he was hooking me ...
Tom Westerholm: The NBA announces Marcus Smart has been fined $15,000 for criticizing the officiating last night.
Ben Golliver: Blazers’ Damian Lillard points to refs after loss to Clippers: “It seems like everything we did was a foul tonight. It was a tough situation, I was living in the paint all night and I shoot two free throws. I feel like that was a major factor tonight: the free throw disparity.” pic.twitter.com/coI9ORaiJS
Rivers said he thought Bledsoe pulled a fast one on the officiating crew. "That was awful," Rivers said afterward. "It was. They should've overturned it. That's why I hate the rule. Nobody wants to be wrong. Let me just say that. You have to overturn that. Unless Bledsoe fouled Lou with his face, there was no foul on that play."
Mark Montieth: Nate McMillan: "I didn't feel that was a foul at all. He got two calls tonight our guys had our hands up, he's initiating the contact. We did foul a lot this game but I didn't think that was a foul." Also points out Charlotte was the aggressor and his team failed to make plays.
Brad Townsend: Carlisle, asked 48 hours later by @MFollowill about the biggest teaching point from Lakers loss: “Hopefully the officials call an obvious foul on the other team at the end. That’s the first thing. Other than that, I was proud of the way our guys competed.”
Dwain Price: The NBA Last Two Minute Report showed that Dwight Howard should have been whistled for an offensive foul when he held Seth Curry on the play where Danny Green hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send last night's Mavs-Lakers game into overtime, where the LAL won 119-110.
Doncic said he didn't even know who hit him from behind to cause his laceration but strongly believed a loose-ball foul should have been called. He also complained to referee Mark Lindsay about being hit in the face by James on a pass that resulted in a turnover in the opening minute of overtime, pointing to his face and the back of his head repeatedly during a conversation with the official while James shot the free throws that put the Lakers up nine points with less than a minute left. "I was just asking if I got hit in the head, how's that not a foul?" said Doncic, who on multiple occasions showed referees scratches on his arms after drives that didn't result in foul calls, once leading to a stoppage in play for infectious disease control because he was bleeding. "Just should have concentrated on the game and not talked to the refs. That was my fault."
Coach Rick Carlisle agreed with his team's 20-year-old star. "I was upset, too, but I'm not going to spend 50 grand to criticize," Carlisle said. "It just doesn't make sense. These are hard games. I don't know what else to say. They're hard games, and they're very emotional. It's tough. It's tough when you think you're getting hit and the whistle's not blowing."
Tim MacMahon: Seth Curry mentioned that Mavs blew two chances to foul on last possession of 4Q. “Even so, I knew what play was coming. ... I’m still there to take away that pass, and then [Dwight Howard] grabbed me and it was a no-call right in front of the official. It’s just unfortunate.”
John Hollinger: The league has worked really hard to develop a pipeline of young refs via the G League, but the fact is that nobody went to college on an officiating scholarship — officiating is something a person tries to pick up later, and few turn out to be a natural at it. Finally, the faster-paced game that has developed over the past few years has created another issue — people who are NOT world-class athletes having to keep up with them from end to end. How do you feel, Seth, about adding additional officials and/or keeping one ref on each baseline the whole game?
John Hollinger: From the front office side during my time with the Grizzlies, we absolutely had times we wanted to show players and/or coaches that we had their backs. An awful game-deciding call went against us early in one coach’s tenure, and we made sure to howl about it with the league for that purpose. We also had a situation where a particular player felt like he wasn’t getting a fair whistle, and we made a big stink about that too. (But “take that for data” was the only time we did it publicly. Too often it just looks like sour grapes and whining. A lot of times that’s because it is.)
