Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

Happens in every game IMO.

 

We’re the ones always being hossed but yeah refs favor the Lakers

 

hmm, don't think i've ever really closely read the flopping rules. that's an interesting way to define it. i get why they'd do that, as it's in keeping with other choices they've made in terms of not being able adjudicate intent. but still...going flying if you're flicked--even in the right direction--is flopping.

that's not what AD did here, though. he was knocked out of the play by a moving screen and probably realized he wasn't going to be able to contest so he just took the momentum to the floor. i wouldn't have called it a flop, but i'm not sure the rule as alluded to here prevents some egregious versions of flops.

 

Just finished the game.
Barnes may not become the face of the League, but that dude can easily be your second best player on a Chip Team. Maybe not now, but in a few years, if he can get traded to a good one.

 

that was such an obvious moving screen. hilarious that people tried to argue otherwise

 

Oh yea: Barnes is a very good player, and is definitely someone to contend with. "Face of the league", though? Hyperbolic.

I didn't mean to diss Barnes. Darko was ridiculous though.

Re: flop rules: weird call late in CHI's win over HOU tonight: a crucial foul was challenged but upheld, and on the same play, DeRozan was called for a flop. It was very strange. HOU got a technical FT for Demar's flop, then CHI took the ball out of bounds. Watched the replay a few times. In the paint, clear-out and Demar was pushed (fouled), but he was a tad too theatrical as he fell, so: T for flop.

When the coach's challenge rule came in, I was for it. After some time, I thought it was eating up too much time apart from the game. I still thought it was important. Lesson? DVR games and blow through not only all the commercials, halftime BS, long substitution periods between FTs, but now: challenge down-time.

Over the past 2-3 years I've seen too many challenges go against what I thought upon seeing the replay a number of times. I get they have to have a compelling reason to overturn the initial call, but sometimes I wonder what's going on. In the end, I am not a conspiracy theorist, think the games are on the up-and-up and am glad the NBA is tryna "get it right" even if it causes some numbing pauses in the action.

 

Sometimes I wonder if refs privately make jokes about acting abilities of players.

(As they go over a replay to see if a flop was committed)
Ref 1: Looks legit. No Brando here: his momentum carried him from here to there. He really was pushed hard enough. No Brando.
Ref 2: First time I looked at it on the monitor here I thought, immediately it was a Streep, but now? Yea, naw: common foul. You agree? No Streep?
Ref 1: Yea, no Brando, Streep. Not even an Olivier.
Ref 2: Who the hell is Livvy-eh?
Ref 1: Never mind. Let's go.

 

is ref 1 d*** bavetta?

i agree that the outcome of replays is often unsatisfactory to me, so i've begun to question the value. not that i agree with the toronto coach/general fan outrage at our last game, but the idea that the 2 minute report and in-game replays are heavily biased to the initial wrong call (or biased in other ways) isn't hard to believe. the fact that the replay is contingent on overturning the initial (potentially bad) call is particularly annoying. if you're going to take two full minutes, just start from scratch! my guess is when they were drawing it up, they thought it would be much faster, so they built in that layer to speed it up further. but it's not fast, so just dispense with the notion that the initial call was right and requires a larger burden of proof to change. in the case with lebron a couple weeks ago, the initial call was made by a ref who couldn't see the important part of the play. this is a way for bias to creep in even with replay: down the stretch, make the initial judgment call against the team you want to lose. easy peasy.

anyway, i don't think there's a league-wide conspiracy to make the lakers win. at all. i do think specific refs have obvious biases, both over time and within games. back when i had more time to watch more games, i used to refer to a phenomenon i saw as "run officiating", wherein the refs just decide the team that's currently on its run should get all the calls. i don't think it's really purposeful--i think it's just humans getting caught up in the game. and then it's clear certain refs hate certain players and teams. that's something the league has hidden from, but is undeniable, imo. scott foster hates chris paul and works against him and his teams. eric lewis was a freaking C Bags fan who went so far as to not only work for them but also against us. which is insane.

you can fix that stuff, but it requires admissions of guilt that the league feels it can't afford is my guess.

yeah, and it was in the center of action with all the refs' eyes on it. i love it when the argument is that "whatever happened is illegal but it happens a lot without a call". i remember jvg whining when houston blew a 2-0 lead in a series with dallas after cuban pointed out to the refs that yao set moving screens all over the floor. they started calling those, and houston's offense didn't work anymore. jvg went nuts, but i was like--so...you're mad you got caught systematically cheating and then justifiably lost all your games after that because you couldn't cheat anymore? ok bro.

 

$25k

 

SOFT!!!!

 

At the top of my list of "what's illegal but happens a lot without a call" is lane violations. When a guy gets whistled for one - which is rare - I always think, "Why did you choose to call that NOW?" And don't even get me started on 3-seconds: any one of us can watch a game and see a guy camped out near the rim, not guarding a guy for 3 secs at least once a game. And no call. And now, it seems increasingly, players and coaches on the sidelines are yelling "Three Seconds"...and probably a lot of it is an attempt to divert attention.

Yea, good ear, abeer: the first ref is d*** Bavetta. And the 2nd is Earl Strom. (My favorite basketball-ref book is Strom's memoir from 1990, Calling The Shots: My Five Decades in the NBA.)

I share with Scott Foster a dislike of Chris Paul (who might be done with this latest injury?), but I hope Foster is constantly paranoid ever since Donaghy got popped. He was closest to Donaghy and skated. I confess I've been nagged ever since Eric Lewis openly showed the world he was a C-Bags fan (or his family did), then the NBA opened an investigation, Lewis retired...and it all went away. It evaporated from the news, which is exactly what Silver would want. But some of us don't forget. Very few people will mention it, but WTF, Eric Lewis? You know Boston is the most racist city you could pick to back, don't you? Were you an idiot, also? (Won't level the "Tom" epithet, 'cuz that would be a low blow.)

Certain players work the refs, to different degrees of effectiveness, in my opinion. Lebron does complain about not getting the whistle a lot, and I have always tended to agree with him: he was fouled and didn't get the call. He'd be one of the prime examples of every NBA ref has a personal strong opinion about a given player. And the NBA is rough to ref. Hats off to good zebra work; jit's difficult.

Good luck tryna get away with further "antics," Draymond. You're under a microscope for every min you're on the floor from here on out.

 

totally agree on lane violations/3 seconds calls being really sketchy. i get it--it's hard to attend to in the flow of the game with everything else going on. but it sure seems like an arbitrary call almost every time, and an easy place for bias to creep in.

moving screens are, too--though i'd argue refs always call them when they are in the direct line of sight of the action (like the one from the other night). it's too obvious. at least if it happens a couple seconds prior to the action or on an initial sequence, you can plead "eh, this is just going on everywhere". but when it's a dribble hand off body check, it's literally right there.

 

This team is so garbage. I guess we need the trade deadline to pass cause players are probably upset/distracted that their names are in trade rumors.. Every single year in the Lebron era except 2019-20..

 

They need to get the f*** over it, they are being paid millions to go out and hoop. This game doesn't guarantee you a damn thing. Give maximum effort in your time on the court, win or lose,

To keep it a buck, who in the hell is really supposed, to be frustrated and upset, besides D'Angelo?

 

Jan 11, 2024: Lakers slow-walk through a loss at home to the damned Suns. The last 20 minutes were strictly basura. The crowd rightly booed this team, who looked like they saw the game as some off-day scrimmage against some other visiting team. Why? I don't know. Do you know? I wish I knew. We drop below .500 and, despite two recent wins against good teams, still look like one of the league's Bad Teams, sitting over at the children's table with the Pistons, Wizards, Spurs, Blazers and Hornets.

What went Right:

(This space left blank for those on a need-to-know basis)

What went Wrong:
Lebron and AR were horrific. AD had one offensive play that resembled his play over the past 5 weeks. One. Cam is injured again. D-Lo lost/threw the ball away numerous times. Hardly anyone played any D aside from Vando.

The Lakers looked like they had just been released from a CIA sleep deprivation experiment. We got Bookered in the 1st; Bealed in the 3rd. Max Christie tried to score over Bol-Bol under the basket at least twice. It didn't go well. It wlll never go well.

A putrid game game, all-around.

I guess we really are a Vie-For-The-Play-In team. Fer crissakes!

What went sorta...interesting: Mays and Windler looked ready for mins. I kept wondering where Wood was: a late report before the game that he was vaguely injured. I don't know what his issue is.

 

Migraines..

 

This is what you call a scheduled loss. We've played them what seems like 10 times this year, they weren't going to lose every game in the season series.

In that, Bron and AD didn't look good or aggressive. I think Bron was trying to have a Westbrook game and then dial it up late but the game was over before that was even an option.

Suns picked on AR and Max every chance they got and that was almost a guaranteed bucket.

Positives
-Bron and AD got to rest
- Mays looks good

Negatives
- everything else

 

Yeah. you could tell we weren't right from the start. Just not a good showing.

 

Poorly coached teams don't get to make the playoffs, let alone deep playoff runs.