Nuggets-Clippers style is what I wanna see. Refs have been mostly very good there. Allowing great defense to be played without it turning chaotic.

Yeah the magic - celtics game 2 was ridiculous. Back and forth no calls in the 1st quarter leads to celtics diving at the knees and magic turning kp into a bloody mess. People talk about the physicality of the 80s and 90s, but we do not want to end back up there. I’d rather see our superstars healthy

I think it’s more that the players up their intensity 200% and the referees are just not ready for it. 

And the players go from not giving a single fuck to going full 100% effort on every possession. The biggest difference isn’t the refs, it’s the level of effort on defense.

Sounds like the NHL

Honestly it hasn’t even really gotten better in the playoffs. I think the true problem is the inconsistency.

You see Brunson or Jimmy get touched and get a whistle, and then you see these compilations of Steph getting held by the rockets and it feels like you’re watching two different games. If everybody was playing by the same rules I don’t think you’d see as many complaints but it’s impossible to determine what’s a foul and what isn’t. One time down the court they allow a full on brawl, and the next time down, a guy takes a bump from a defender in legal guarding decision and they call it.

Rockets-GSW late regular season game where Curry scored 3 was also way too physical. You’d have back to back contested lay-up attempts left and right with both sides complaining that they got fouled.

Butler was not hurt on purpose, but if the refs allow a playoff game to get too intense and physical, someone’s gonna get hurt, by accident or on purpose. Ppl say they can’t call every foul, but the game is regulated by the calls they do make. Then you get players complaining in the 2nd half for having fouls called on them for doing what they’ve been doing all game.

They’ve been allowing more physicality since around the end of last reg season

The whistle is so different in different series too, Brunson gets a call anytime he gets touched then you have dudes dying in the Rockets Warriors series

It’s funny hearing this from finch bc it was a huge part of why the Timberwolves went so far last postseason, they were better equipped to get physical whereas other teams had built their success on things that work in the regular season

My complaint is that if you’re going to allow teams to be physical, there needs to be a 4th official whose only job is to watch for the away from the play fouls.  The rockets, most specifically FVF, keeps pushing the warriors players away from the play and they only seemed to catch the super obvious ones.  

Hockey is the same way.

The Rockets Warriors series has been abysmal

All we want is consistency. Steph gets held and grabbed in the regular season, but they should not be able to ramp it up to another level in the playoffs. Super telling that a coach from a completely different series is using GSW HOU as a reference point

I don’t want more physicality in the playoffs, I want consistency. The pressure of the playoffs should come from the stakes. Whatever physicality is allowed should also be in the regular season. I’m willing to watch games of just non-stop whistles if it establishes the proper baseline.

I have watched games from each different Playoff series. It’s not only different from the Regular Season, but it’s very different from each series.

Then you have it wildly different in each series from game to game. As an example in the OKC-MEM series in G1 and G2, a total of 27 and 32 FTAs were comellete by each team. Then it was 32 FTAs in G3 1st half…

The combination of Grizzlies insane Q1 shooting and that completely changed the rhythm of the game. It was crazy to see because it was being called softer than a Regular Season game. SGA got in foul trouble because he got called for two fouls trying to front JJJ, who has 60 pounds on him.

It’s felt so so obvious the way games get called have tended to lean towards giving the team down in the series and advantage. Not necessarily outright benefit that team, but drastically change the style and rhythm of the game. Rockets G2, Lakers G2, Knicks G3, Memphis G3 are all examples of teams who benefited in this way.

And all of this physicality or inconsistency has come without cleaning up some of the worst parts. God damn the amount of moving screens, off ball holding I’ve seen on is ridiculous. That shit is like an entirely different sport.

And I agree with Finch here that GSW-HOU has real potential to explode. It is an absolute rock fight.

“If warriors/rockets don’t fight they’re pussy ngl” - Chris Finch lol

Not just any series, the series with their potential next round opponent. Get them to punch eachother, multiple game suspensions and/or injuries -> free WCF trip.

Man’s playing chess.

Look at me, Sim888, I’m the resident Photoshop expert now

https://i.imgur.com/u8bnYzt.png

Eh, I don’t think he’s instigating really. I think he’s using the tactic of trying to legitimize his own complaints by pretending it’s not all about him. Basically the equivalent of “I’m just speaking up for what’s right in principle! In fact, I’m more concerned about how those other guys are being wronged by this thing. It’s just a coincidence that my complaint also happens to benefit me.”

He’s eyeing the match up next round lmao

Especially against Luka (see last year’s OKC Dallas series), Dort is allowed to play football style defense in which he endlessly body checks the guy he’s guarding while intentionally kneeing and punching every time he’s fighting over a screen.

If a player is always playing reckless and not considering other players health I don’t consider accidents like last night a stupid mistake, I consider it a dirty player putting himself into another position to injure a player because he genuinely doesn’t care about the outcome. Being as reckless as Dort is every single game is inherently dirty, even if each individual example looks admissible in a vacuum

Amen.

Thompson.

Fans do. Coaches don’t. No coach wants to see their star go down with an injury in the playoffs.

Lots of posts on this sub lately of physical defense being described like crimes against humanity. “It’s amazing Steph can get out of bed and walk around the next day after the various light hugs the Rockets gave him!”

They don’t really though. No Reddit back then but what I remember hearing from fans was everyone bitch, bitch, bitching about the physicality of the Pistons (Bad Boys and ‘04 edition) and the Knicks, Pacers, etc.

Not to mention everyone complaining about the Pistons games being “boring” because they played good defense.

If those days really came back, the first time a team grinded out a 74-68 physical win, all those people saying they want that era back would be changing their tune real quick.

To me it is mostly what they call and what they allow that doesn’t make much sense. In the same game the same ref can call a bunch of mild touches on drives and layups against defenders who are simply defending their spot. Then go ahead and allow other defenders use mixed martial arts against an off ball or even dribbling player. It is weird.

Who is you guys lol. This is one coach.

Dudes are just straight up shoving each other in that series. And Isaiah Stewart isn’t even playing!

I mean i think his point about out of context physicality is important to this. If you go check the Lakers sub, they think Minny is the most dirty team they ever ever seen right now. You look at the Timberwolves sub, and it’s Vando checking in and injuring 2 wolves in 30 seconds during game 1, etc.

Physicality is fine, but the refs are letting players on all teams just kinda smack each other without purpose right now. And honestly, props to him for pointing to his own team to say “they’re out there throwing hands and I’m really not sure it’s beneficial.”

As a compromise we will crack down on it, with the exception of a player chosen completely at random. That player, you guessed it, Draymond Green.

• Silver, probably

All I want is consistency, that’s literally all this has ever been about. From techs, to reputation fouls, to traveling/carries. If it’s soft at least it’s consistent. I think it’s easier for refs to call it that way.

They struggle with physicality because they can’t call every foul, and there’s reputation to some players they NEED on the floor for ratings for both offensive and defensive players, and for bigger markets and stars.

It’s an entertainment product at the end of the day in the business of making money

Cracking down on physicality is going to hurt his team the most lol

Players have already been injured. The Warriors and Celtics are both severely impacted by injuries.

I also blame Ime and he’s so unrepentant about it

I also blame Ime even though i don’t have context.

Why is he to blame

This is also making contact worse, IMO, because if someone is gonna flop any time I’m near them, I’m gonna make any contact count.

But if the refs actually called the fouls, there would be less of a need for flopping. Not that this applies to every player, but against some teams, the only way to get calls is by exaggerating the contact, because otherwise the refs don’t call most fouls against them.

The good ol’ “They can’t call everything” tactic.

Yeah whenever Brooks and Draymond end up in the same area of the court they both flail like they’ve been shot. Jokic is doing it, Luka is doing it. Lebron gave us a beautiful screenshot last game where he’s peeking thru his hands after writhing on the floor trying to get a call. Just hard to watch

ya too many circle button taps lately

I agree in principle but also someone like Steph not flopping is just encouraging the Rockets to play him even more physically and it’s been pretty ugly. Not that we deserved to win Game 2 or anything but some of what they were doing to Steph on and off ball was egregious.

Don’t burn your burner like this, Joe

It then becomes a question of how many Warriors get their arms ripped off by Steven Adams wookie-style

Draymond unchained

Amen/Brooks/Udoka is an axis of evil

Rockets might be the last team I’d want to get in a fight with

I guess the question is, if they did call ticky tack fouls consistently, would players stop doing them?

I think the key is just consistency. Gaming the refs shouldn’t be part of the strategy. Everyone should go in with expectations set and not have to adjust like you mention.

That means major changes to NBA reffing. At minimum starting with adding another ref to each game so they’re in position to see fouls, making refs publicly accountable for failing, and culling the bad ones out of the league (and getting their union to go along with that).

Overall, I do prefer physicality to ticky tack calls all the time and definitely this is not something that can be solved mid playoffs either way. But if they made a real ref reform, implemented it and actually stuck with it (instead of abandoning enforcement after 3 weeks like they usually do), I wonder if they could clean it up substantially without negatively effecting the flow of the game

They call a flagrant for dangerous closeouts that aren’t intentional, wtf aren’t undercuts considered the same?

They need to be instant ejections, I’d rather players just let a guy go wide open because they’re scared of being ejected than just standing there mouth agape and praying for a miss by being there, or worse actually intending to hurt someone

Magic/celtics is up there too.

He’s specifically talking about “physicality without purpose” though which is different from physical play generally

Everyone says this and doesn’t realise that the amount of physicality warriors rockets has will 100% cause an injury, whether intentional or not.

People talking about they love physicality, well, I love skilled players putting the ball in the hoop.

Steph and JG seem to be having fun competing against each other though.

If they call more flagrants on those airborn contacts, players will definitely make an effort not to make them. Its one thing to contest a shot but were seeing far too many touches and slight nudges on airborne players that are just let go. Theyd only call a flagrant once somebody is hurt so its all fair game to nudge to alter drive/layup trajectories.

I mean, I hear that, but I don’t think either of the plays where Ja or Jimmy got injured were intentional. To me, it looked Amen tripped and Lu slipped. It’s unfortunate but I don’t think there’s much you can do there.

Sorry but there’s a limit to physicality where its an injury waiting to happen, and ime’s trying to push it we saw him on tape, he did this in the finals when he tried to break currys ankles. We just want there to be less foul call so theres a flow to the game but the refs should punish a team who takes advantage of it

There is a big difference between a regular season whistle, a “standard” postseason whistle, and whatever the hell rockets warriors game 2 was with multiple players on both teams judo fighting on the court.

I actually thought game 1 of that series was a good level of physicality allowed.

I don’t think it is a critique of the players, but rather of the reffing.

I feel like the rules are more to dictate how the game is played lol. Like the rules are meant to decide how to play basketball not just about keeping people safe. They have added and adjusted rules around safety for players but to say it’s the #1 goal if the rules is just not accurate.

Player safety is and should be a priority for the league. I wish they actually cared about it more than money though and we would have a 60-70 game season.

And I’m paying to watch basketball in part bc of the passion. I don’t even know the point of your comment exactly but personally I expect a ton of passion and fight in the playoffs. If someone occasionally gets an unfortunate injury bc of the general passion the players play with in the playoffs then so be it. Part of what you sign up with making the money they do. I wanna watch passionate basketball games, at least for the playoffs lol

The head coach of the Timberwolves is absolutely not demanding touch fouls get called haha

Wolves/Lakers Game 2 had over 60 fouls called

No these teams just don’t like each other. Regardless of the reasons the refs need to do a better job.

I am part of that problematic fan group