Carmine...I would like to hear your thoughts on how you thought this game was called.
I didn't go to the game and they didn't show replays on some of the calls you could tell the house and Mullin were not happy with. The free throw numbers were brutal for a home team.
I guess approximately 10 or more were from techs, flagrants and stop the clock on purpose fouls.
I thought Driscoll had a rough night. Twice Ponds drove and missed shots that I thought were obvious fouls. On at least one of them Driscoll was lead and it was his primary area. His most egregious gaffe was when he overturned the leads out of bounds call on the baseline from trail and the replay showed it should have been our ball. You should only step in there if you're 110% sure. Didn't see a replay on the "non kick ball". It has to be deliberately kicked. I didn't see a replay of the "non-travel" people have mentioned earlier.
I have two discussion points.
1) When defenders are reaching in fully extended, dramatically into a players space close to a dribbler's body going for steals or are bringing there hands down and swinging violently towards a players head - it often looks like a foul to the refs. He doesn't have the luxury of slow motion instant replay. This happened to Ponds, Clarke and Simon a few times yesterday on calls the replay wasn't kind to. I tell players straight out. If your posture and hands are straight up and I make a bad foul call that's on me. If your reaching in like mad and taking huge swings towards players heads and I make a bad call - that's on you. It looks like a foul.
2) I mentioned this previously and many posters felt that I was either flat out wrong or that the exact opposite is true. Mullin is no friend of the refs. He complains and shows them up constantly. If you have one coach whining incessantly and one not saying a word? The refs are human. Guess who gets the close calls late.
Ponds throws up his hands on every call and makes faces at the refs constantly. They hate that. The refs are human. Guess who gets the close calls late.