Yeah, I only watched the final 7 minutes of the game, and even I could see that. Although when Kornet was in a couple of calls were missed.

They are not leading the league in free throws (thats still the Lakers). They are in 7th in FTA. They are leading the league in FT disparity meaning their FTA-opponent FTA. 

If you look at the drive data on Spurs guards, Fox gets 13 drives a game and 1.9 FTA a game from drives, Castle gets 14.8 drives a game and 2.6 FTA, Harper gets 9.3 drives and 0.7 FTA, and Johnson gets 5.2 drives and 0.7 FTA.

League wide, Deni does 20.4 drives and league leading 4.1 FTA, but hes not the highest ratio for volume guys as Luka does 15 and 3.7, Zion 14.8 drives and 4.0 FTA, Harden 14.5 and 3.6, Paolo 13.0 and 3.6. Brown is actually not far down that list at 17.7 and 3.3 which would make his ratio of FTA per drive better than any individual Spur guard.

We also make it a point to not foul people period, even to the detriment of getting good contests at times

A lot of those calls should be offensive fouls.

Only castle is comfortable with contact like that. Not reallt true of Harper or Fox

Thinking Basketball just did a great analysis of this and how much basketball has changed

Historically, defenders were entitled to their space. You couldnt just barge into their chest (or push them away with your free arm).

Basketball was about finding a creative path around the defender or tricking him into going to the wrong space. If you couldnt, you had to look for other solutions.

That’s why the mid-range jumper was so important. People disparage a 12 foot 2 pointer because its inefficient- better to just barrel to the rim right?

Except in the 90s, that wasnt always an option. If you shoulder barged a defender you’d get called for an offensive foul, if you used your free arm to just shove him out of the way, you’d get called for a foul. In some cases you just had to pull up. Not anymore. Now, the solution is to barrel straight into the defender with as much kinetic energy as you can. Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NWDEbashTk

Castle and Harper don’t even drive to the basket with less than 3 dudes between them and the rim -_-

Someone always has to bitch about free throws, thinking life should be fair and everyone should be miserable

The inconsistencies on a night to night basis are what makes it dogshit. I could almost guarantee any team could get at least 10 FTs on any given night from whatever subjective soft contact fouls the refs want to call that night. So when a team only gets 4 FTs, that certainly seems more intentional than not.

Not for long, they’re number 2 at +175 lol.

Is this is a joke or sarcasm that I’m missing?

Boston Celtics total FT disparity since 1996: -4,413

San Antonio Spurs total FT disparity since 1996: +4,490

I can tell you they take fuck all layup attempts in the 26mins Wembanyama played, except for Brown who tried Wembanyama 3 times and got blocked 3 times. Thats why his feelings are hurt.

6 FTA/game is generous for a 41 year old LeBron whose %drive and shots in the paint are at their lowest in his career.

Charlotte Hornets in the 5 seasons between 2015 - 2020:

1. +1,829

Is that meaningful at all or just doesn’t serve the right narrative?

I think there’s a few lakers fans that ended up as refs and try not to be biased but are deep down, maybe that’s like 20% of the reason but the rest is the playstyle they’ve had. Reaves has always drawn a lot and so has AD while never being a good shooting team, that’s the formula for FT differential. And they did have a good but non aggressive defensive scheme built around AD as a vertical anchor, the Celtics are probably last in differential over the last few seasons because they are basically the antithesis of that

being a neutral fan is the best because you got these people thinking their rival teams are cheating.

Laker fans think that every team plays like game 7 vs them when they actually just have dogshit defense, Warriors fans crying about the Lakers getting FT differential when they got a tremendous amount of uncalled illegal screen, rest of the league when they cry that the Thunder gets favorable calls, and then these Suns/Grizzlies/Wolves fans crying about the Lakers FT differential and think that the league is cheating and favoring the lakers after being a mid team since 2021 😂

Have you considered that the Lakers play the right way, don’t settle for jumpers, take it to the hoop, and play a hard nosed physical brand of basketball?

Did you watch the Lakers lose last night’s game on a blown call?

No? Cool. Stop talking and watch the games bud

13 vs 19 shots in the restricted area. They didn’t shoot a ton less there

He doesn’t get calls otherwise so he exaggerates

He’s got a great compilation of really egregious ones for sure, but that’s more like a product of being in the league for 23 years.

yeah im not even really complaining, Castle does something similar but fully agree they need to either get rid of that altogether or call it consistently