Tim MacMahon: Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry to ref after Dirk goes to the line: “He’s got 20,000 points. He doesn’t need anybody’s help!” Of course, Gentry shorted Dirk by 11,422 points.
Storyline: Officiating Complaints
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Ayton received his first NBA ejection after getting called for a second technical foul. Ayton came into the game having been called for one technical in 64 games. “I didn’t even know I got ejected at first,” the rookie 7-footer said after the game. “I did not know. I just sat down on the bench looking around and people are telling me I got ejected. ‘I got ejected? What’s the ejection? What is that?’ I didn’t see anybody do this (waving his hand) or throw me out or nothing.”
Suns coach Igor Kokoskov said Ayton’s reaction was “inappropriate,” but acknowledged Ayton’s frustration over the foul call. “He knew he has to play through the fouls because that affects his productivity, minutes and all that stuff,” Kokoskov said. “I’m not justifying his action, but his reaction was on the previous defensive play.”
Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic said he deserved to get ejected Saturday night. That much he conceded. But he also lamented how difficult it is to keep his emotions in check when he feels he’s being unfairly whistled. “It’s extremely hard because it’s not equal for everybody,” Jokic said in the aftermath of the Nuggets’ 102-100 victory over the Pacers, the second consecutive game Denver has won on a game-clinching basket.
Jokic was called for a foul while trying to corral an offensive rebound with 2:56 remaining against Pacers center Myles Turner. He blew a gasket at official Tony Brothers and immediately drew two technical fouls and the boot. “I didn’t say nothing,”Jokic said, though video clearly showed him barking at Brothers. “I don’t know what he was talking (about).”
Jim Eichenhofer: Deandre Ayton has been ejected after his second technical foul. He was sitting at the end of the bench at the time of the ejection, so he must’ve said something refs didn’t enjoy
Doc Rivers has been a part of the NBA for 33 years as a player and coach. He thought he had seen everything until Friday night. The Los Angeles Clippers coach and Chicago’s Jim Boylen were both ejected during the third quarter at Staples Center for arguing. It is something so rare that the NBA and Elias Sports Bureau could not recall or track the last time it has happened. “I’ve been around a while and I needed something new,” Rivers said after the Clippers’ 128-121 victory.
Both started arguing near their respective benches when official Jason Phillips assessed the first technical. Boylen and Rivers continued to argue, which caused Phillips to assess the second technical and an automatic ejection. “After receiving the first technical foul, they continued a verbal exchange between both of the coaches, and therefore received a second technical foul for the continuation, and then were automatically ejected with two technical fouls each,” Phillips said in a pool report. “The first one was for the arguing, and we told (the coaches) that was enough, and then they continued.”
Sam Smith: Zach LaVine: “What Jim did I personally respect that a lot. He really cares about us and he’s going to fight for us; that shows his true character the way he feels about us.”
Duane Rankin: “A couple of calls, honestly. A couple of push offs. Before Danuel House hit the 3, I think that was a big push off on us. Those 50-50 calls, we’ve just got to understand those aren’t going to go our way.” Devin Booker. #Suns fall late in loss at #Rockets bit.ly/2TIxQOC pic.twitter.com/mEngHjpJR4
Brett Dawson: Everybody (including Paul George) knew this was coming. pic.twitter.com/bi9ywgQkQ2
Erik Horne: L2M report from Thunder-Clippers says Russell Westbrook’s sixth foul was a Correct Call. “Gallinari established himself in a legal guarding position in Westbrook’s path and Westbrook drives through and dislodges him.”
Patrick Beverley: Men lie, numbers don’t. He tried to blame the refs. Naw bra bra!!!
Bobby Portis: .@OfficialNBARefs I know I’m not the most liked/loved guy in the league, but this has to stop. This is costing us games. Got fouled twice in the last minute of the game, two no calls. Can’t wait to see the two minute report tomorrow!!
Paul George had saved his money. He’d held his tongue Thursday night in Portland after the Thunder beat the Trail Blazers. He’d had a good night and his team had gutted out a good win and he’d worn out a path to the free-throw line, and when it was over he opted not to open up on the officials. “It’s kinda weird, because I planned on losing my money until I saw I shot 20 free throws,” George said then. “I had a lot of words for the officiating tonight, but I guess I can’t say much with 20 free throws.”
After Oklahoma City’s Paul George, Russell Westbrook and Steven Adams fouled out in the final four minutes of a 118-110 loss to the LA Clippers on Friday night at Staples Center, George ripped the officiating in the NBA and said something must be done. “It’s just bad officiating,” George said. “I’m sorry, just bad officiating. We don’t get a fair whistle. We haven’t gotten a fair whistle all year. … Somebody’s got to look into this. It’s getting out of hand, where we somehow just walk teams to the line. And there’s nobody that gets more contact. If I don’t speak for myself, I speak for Russ. There’s nobody that gets more contact than Russ going to the basket. And it’s just crazy.
“I don’t understand it. It’s a piece of s— being on that floor. We giving everything we got. We’re playing hard. We’re getting grabbed, we’re getting scratched, clawed, held, shoved. And there’s nothing for it. The officials just get to walk out, and there’s nothing that penalizes them for not officiating the game the right way.”
James Edwards III: Siakim hit with a technical after Maker was fouled.
Rod Beard: Now another tech on #Raptors Danny Green. They’re becoming unglued by the referees. Nick Nurse gets a timeout to cool things down.
Harrison Wind: Malone on Nikola Jokic’s fouls: “I didn’t see any silly fouls tonight…I thought there were some questionable calls.” pic.twitter.com/IqHTrZhv4y
Jeff McDonald: Technical foul on Billy Donovan at the timeout.
The play in question came with 4 minutes, 51 seconds left in the fourth quarter when Hornets guard Jeremy Lamb’s shoe came off near the foul line. Cousins, who was defending in the area, picked the shoe up with his right hand and tossed it to the sideline. He was whistled for a technical foul by official Brian Forte right after the shoe flew out of bounds. Cousins, who missed almost a year of play after tearing his left Achilles last season, could not believe the call and went over to Forte a couple times to plead his case. “Next time I’ll just step on the shoe and roll my ankle, break it, tear an Achilles,” Cousins said after the game. “Just leave it out there next time. I guess that’s what they want. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Cousins’ teammates were also surprised the call was made, but Warriors forward Draymond Green made it a point to say he thought Forte officiated a solid game. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that,” Green said. “But that’s crazy. It’s sitting in the middle of the floor. I don’t know. We have all these rules for player safety. You can barely contest a shot without getting a foul, but you’re supposed to leave a shoe sitting there. It’s just kind of crazy to me, but it is what it is. I thought Brian Forte reffed a great game tonight, so that’s one call that’s a little questionable. But he was spot on with some calls, so I thought he reffed a great game.”
Jonathan Feigen: Kerr on Harden calling out Foster: “I can’t relate. I’m perfect with the officials.” He cited his to do with Ken Mauer last week and said typically officials move on, no hard feelings.
Rockets guard James Harden has been fined $25,000 for publicly criticizing the officiating following Houston’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, the league announced Saturday.
Harden’s comments were directed specifically at referee Scott Foster, whom he said “for sure” has a “personal” issue with the Rockets and should not be allowed to officiate any more of their games.
Tim Bontemps: Nick Nurse just got ejected during the timeout after disagreeing with an and-one call in favor of Spurs guard Marco Belinelli.
Josh Lewenberg: There’s Nick Nurse’s first career ejection as a NBA head coach.
Adam Himmelsbach: Last 2 Min. report highlights: Bucks shouldn’t have been called for shot-clock violation on Lopez tip w/3.5 left. Kyrie should’ve been called for off. foul for pushing Middleton into Morris. Middleton should have been called for fouling Morris. Bledsoe & Giannis both fouled Kyrie
Brian Robb: Officials also missed two traveling calls against Giannis in the final 68 seconds, according to L2M report. Giannis should have been whistled for a travel prior to a jump ball being called with 3.7 seconds left.
This time, with the Philadelphia 76ers attempting 35 free throws to his team’s 12 in Thursday night’s 106-102 loss at Wells Fargo Center, Spoelstra simply offered, “I’m not even going to get into it and I told our players not even to get into it. It doesn’t look right.” But his players did get into it, particularly guard Dion Waiters, whose 18-point effort closed with just two attempts from the line.
“At the end of the day,” Waiters said, “I feel like we played hard, we attacked, and calls didn’t go our way. You look at the fouls and things like that, man, it’s 35-12. So it’s kind of hard when you’re battling and you know you give it everything you’ve got and you can’t touch guys out there. “It’s been like that. So it’s frustrating. But at the end of the day we can only control what we can control. Something’s got to give also, man. You’ve got too many guys on this team that drive. As far as us getting in the paint, the numbers are right there and we don’t go to the free-throw line at all.”
Waiters said it’s as if the Heat’s physical reputation has been discounted on one end of the court. The Heat are 20th in free throws at 22 per game. “You know, we’re physical,” he said. “That’s what we’re known for, a physical, tough team. We’re going to make it hard every night for you. “But we’re going to put our heads down too and get to the basket, too. There’s guys like myself, I get in the paint a whole lot. I went to the free-throw line twice. Come on, man. When you look at 36-12 free throws, something’s not right.”
“Scott Foster, man. I never really talk about officiating or anything like that, but just rude and arrogant,” said Harden, who finished with 30 points to extend his streak of 30-point performances to 32 games, the second longest in NBA history. “I mean, you aren’t able to talk to him throughout the course of the game, and it’s like, how do you build that relationship with officials? And it’s not even that call [on the sixth foul]. It’s just who he is on that floor.
“It’s pretty frustrating. And I’m probably going to get hit [with a fine], but honestly, I don’t really say anything. I’m a pretty quiet guy, to myself, but it’s one of those things where you can’t voice your opinion. You can’t have a conversation with someone that’s officiating the game. You’re getting a tech. It’s pretty sad.”
There was an enormous discrepancy in free throws, and Dion Waiters is sick of it. After watching his team attempt 12 free throws compared to 35 for Philadelphia, Erik Spoelstra said: “I’m not even going to get into it. I told our players not to get into it. It doesn’t look right. [But] we had opportunities. We were up one [with 1:37 left] regardless of the foul discrepancy.”
Gerald Bourguet: Steve Kerr has been fined $25K for his tirade last night
Collins and Klay Thompson exchanged words, and the frustration spilled over to players from both sides. The two players were given offsetting technical fouls. Portland led 110-103 before Draymond Green was called for a flagrant foul on Collins with 3:54 left. Kerr reacted angrily, throwing his clipboard to court and yelling at the officials before he was ejected. Lillard made the three technical shots and Collins made his free throws to give Portland a 115-103 lead. Layman added a 3-pointer to all but seal the win. The Warriors finished with just 12 points in the final quarter. Green praised Kerr for standing up for him: “That was amazing, he was great. I enjoyed that.”
Mark Medina: Durant on restraining Kerr: “I felt him. I understand his anger and his rage, especially for that call. I thought we should just keep playing. It was a common foul, I thought. Refs looked at it differently. I understand why coach was a little frustrated. Get ready for the break.”
Harrison Wind: More Michael Malone on the ejection: “I think they probably enjoyed me not being there…I think our players know me. They know who I am. I’m a fighter, I’m a competitor, and I didn’t like some of the calls that were not being called and I’m going to stick up for our players.”
Jeff Garcia: Sixers Embiid fined for criticism of NBA refs and inappropriate language. #HereTheyCome #nba pic.twitter.com/hz8xCzbgFV
Monty McCutchen, the NBA’s vice president of referee development and training, disagreed with the National Basketball Referees Association’s defense of a non-call of a seemingly obvious travel violation by the Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal on Monday. McCutchen, who has held the position since 2017 after an on-court career as a ref for more than 25 years, offered his interpretation of the play on Tuesday. “While in some cases a fumble at the end of a dribble on the gather can be retrieved, that is not what happened on this play,” McCutchen told ESPN. “Bradley Beal gathers the ball and takes two steps, but then loses control of the ball. Once he has lost control after taking the two steps, he must regain control and pass or shoot before taking another step in order to be legal. Since he does not regain control until another step, the play is a travel.”
Wayne Selden: Okay okay. Gotta work on this move during all star break, the “lose control” into the filay will be unguardable.
Sam Dekker: Even if he “lost control”, it’s still a travel to pass or shoot it to yourself. Y’all got this one wrong, it’s okay to be wrong haha even brad knows it was a walk… and a ref told me to “learn the rules” the other day…
Louis Williams: Not even on Twitter you guys just don’t say “ we missed it “ 😂😂
Bradley Beal: 😁
Before the Heat’s game against Denver on Monday night, Spoelstra indicated he agreed with the decision not to fine him. “I didn’t say anything inflammatory,” he said. “I’m allowed to say my peace about that. I didn’t cross the line. I didn’t anticipate I would be fined.”
“I said enough last night,” Spoelstra said Monday evening. “We’re very accountable. And I know the league is really pushing for that type of accountability as well. I walked out of that building with an L on our heads. At the end of the day, you deserve it and we’ll take accountability for the things we could have done better. What I said is we just disagreed. It didn’t look right and it didn’t feel right. I understand the two-minute report. I understand the accountability. We just want them to watch the game film and understand some of the things we saw.
Dwight Jaynes: NBA L2M report admits there were TWO missed calls on Damian Llillard’s final drive, just as he said after the game. But that and five bucks will get you a cup of coffee anywhere in Portland.
Tim Reynolds: Heat coach Erik Spoelstra – as he wished – is NOT being fined for his postgame comments last night, AP is told.
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra opened his postgame comments with a vent about officiating. With it difficult to recall the last time that happened to this degree. “Look, NBA do not fine me. I’m allowed to say this. It ends up being 26 to 8,” he said of the Warriors’ free-throw total compared to the Heat’s. “I know nobody wants to hear that, and that’s not why we lost. “The officials, so let’s be clear about it, so I do not get fined, that’s not why we lost. But you hate to see 26 to 8 when our guys are going aggressively.”
That’s when the Warriors played for a final shot, with Durant trying to get free with his dribble for another dagger. Only he briefly lost his dribble, with the ball rolling as the Warriors forward touched it with one hand and then the other. Allowed to play on, he then hoisted an errant 3-pointer, with the rebound corralled by teammate DeMarcus Cousins. With the Warriors center fouled by Winslow on the play, he converted two free throws with 5.4 seconds to close out the scoring. “It’s a double-dribble,” Spoelstra said. “Everybody can see it. Those are tough calls to make, but everybody saw it. It’s right there in front of everybody. That should be a violation. And you can’t miss those calls.”
The ire wasn’t completely gone. With a chance to win or tie following a timeout, the Heat could only get an errant 3-point attempt from Dion Waiters when Josh Richardson, who scored a career-high 37 points, first fell to the court and then into the bench. “I don’t know if he got knocked off course,” Spoelstra said. “But I’ve said my piece. But it looked like he was coming off and had an opportunity to break free.” Richardson took over from there. “I was running to the corner for the inbounds,” he said. “I got tripped. I slid out of bounds. I got held to the bench. Nobody called it or saw it, so it is what it is.”
Shandel Richardson: First time in my nine years of covering the NBA that I’ve heard Erik Spoelstra mention the officiating in the postgame.
Tim MacMahon: Damian Lillard said he “got fouled two times” on his drive to the basket on the final possession. “But like I said, it should have never came to that. When you score nine points in the fourth quarter, you’re going to have a hard time winning the game.”
Adam Himmelsbach: Tech on Billy Donovan. At first looked like he was getting tossed.
Brian Lewis: The #NBA’s Last Two Minute Report confirmed the officials blew what should’ve been a foul against LaMarcus Aldridge on Shabazz Napier’s potential game-tying 3-pointer with :01.9 left in the #Nets 117-114 loss at the #Spurs.
John Meyer: Taj Gibson has had enough of NBA officials. Gets his third foul and tells Saunders “That’s two, that’s two,” as in two fouls he believes to be terrible calls. I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing another Middle Finger Ejection!
Mark Medina: DeMarcus Cousins gets his first technical while playing in an actual game for the Warriors. He has admitted frustration adapting to how the officials call fouls this season.
Fizdale claimed he had no idea why he got the second tech, which came after the Knicks intentionally fouled Harden on a fast break. It appeared Fizdale was arguing over a play at the other end. Ultimately, though, Fizdale said he felt badly about the ejection. “I never like to leave the guys on the floor — I felt I let them down,’’ he said. “I don’t know why I got ejected. I was upset. It was the end of the game. I was battling for my guys.’’
Crew chief Pat Fraher told a pool reporter the ejection was warranted. “Coach Fizdale was warned in the first half at 3:28 for continuous complaining and was later given a technical foul,” Fraher said. “We do not warn multiple times. So now in the second half, he continues to complain on a non-call on the other end of the floor, which is now unsportsmanlike conduct and is given his second technical at 1:08 of the second half.”
Mark Cuban: See, @OfficialNBARefs , this is why we have a trust issue. The defender leaves his feet at the circle and lands what 2-3 ft inside it ? With contact You say- Q4 :08: Chandler was vertical and legal. Vertical ? Really ? pic.twitter.com/TRTQm118RB
In several videos found on Twitter, it does appear that Hield does establish a dribble, lose control, pick up the basketball, and dribbles again before the winner. Pachulia said he thought it was a violation immediately. It appears that Pachulia, Reggie Bullock and Jackson relax Hield bobbles the ball. “Once he picked up the ball, he couldn’t dribble anymore,” Pachulia said. “That’s messed up. Unfortunately he did. He got by me easy because it was sort of surprising. “One-foot floater from (three-point range)? C’mon.”
Rod Beard: #Pistons Blake Griffin: “I can’t say anything about the officiating, but I don’t know that I’ve ever been part of a game like that. (I’m) very frustrated. I’m almost at a loss for words at what happened.”
Dwain Price: “I wouldn’t have been ejected for that for sure in Europe. I was trying to juggle the ball. . .I’ve got to work on my soccer skills.” — Luka on getting ejected after he kicked the ball into the stands tonight
March 20, 2019 | 5:31 am EDT Update
Harrison Faigen: Josh Hart was asked if he thought free agency was serving as extra motivation for some guys down the stretch of the season, and said (among other things) “if you’re not motivated to play basketball, you shouldn’t be in the game.” (via @SpectrumSN pic.twitter.com/MQ0lXfRdE9
Sean Cunningham: D’Angelo Russell scored 27 of his career high 44 points in the 4th quarter – the most scoring in a 4th quarter this season by an NBA player. Previous was 25 points recorded by Kevin Durant & Paul George
“I’m speechless, really. The locker room wasn’t speechless, that’s a jubilant locker room,” said Atkinson, who praised the bench of Hollis-Jefferson, Jared Dudley and Treveon Graham that played out the fourth quarter, when the Nets outscored Sacramento 45-18.
Sean Cunningham: A real sense of frustration and embarrassment inside the Kings locker room tonight. Buddy Hield said the blame is on the guys on the court. “You just have to mature and grow quick…have to learn to adjust.”
When asked how to to fix things, he put it pretty simply. “Win. It’s like the cure it all goes away,” he told Leahy. “A week ago we was he talk, all the negativity now we win two games and everybody love us. That’s just how it go.”
