To me the acting is the worst of it. It’s a legitimately hard game to ref and I’m all for paying the refs far more than they get now and making them full-time employees and adjusting training and expectations accordingly. But the acting is an easy one. Sometimes you’re going to get fooled but most times the refs are myopic by choice. Especially on reviewed plays. Players are going to learn and respond. Booker last night tried one of the things PatBev did to him. The Clips did what they had to do, but the centrality of PatBev on Booker to their strategy made it worse actual basketball than it had to be. They absolutely have to cut out the acting. They’ve done it before after everyone started copying Reggie Miller kicking defenders during the act of shooting.
Jrue is a really impressive defender. Really making Chris Paul work.
Guys are always going to sell contact - I think Crowder went to extremes to sell at least 3 genuine fouls (he was fouled, I refuse to believe, for instance, that Pat Connaughton hit him hard enough to send him stumbling 15 feet across the court). I get that, at least.
The foul seeking nonsense is the worst for me (Chris Paul, Luka Doncic, and Trae Young are the kings here) - Pauls thing where he runs in front of a defender then pulls up short, or leaps into a defender 36 feet away and hurls a shot like he’s actually trying to shoot, etc…that’s not basketball.
Moreover, I think that when we consider Paul’s playoff failures over a decade at this point in context with how good he really is, I think that nonsense plays a big role. Sometimes, he gets so deep into his deep bag of BS tricks that he’s not really playing basketball anymore, and I thinks refs are going to be less inclined to call that in the 4th quarter of the conference finals than a game in February. To me, his back-breaking turnover last night looked like him over-dribbling to try to draw some sort of lunge from the defender that he’d then try to sell.
The problem with refs and fouls is they don’t call fouls unless they sell the contact. I’ve seen players get hacked without selling yet they don’t get a call so that’s why they outlandishly sell contact in order to get the refs to blow their whistle. In that case, I do understand why the players do it
Yeah, this is basically Shaq’s career.
Chris Paul has played very well in the playoffs consistently. His “failures” are on a team level and he had some untimely injuries as well
He’s played well in aggregate, I agree, but he has a pretty significant litany of mind-breaking plays at the end of losses.
From watching some of the ends of these games, sometimes I think Paul takes too much upon himself in the last 4 minutes. The Suns are at their best when they are whipping the ball around and getting guys open ala the Warriors. Paul is integral in that, but it seems like he settles for more 1 on 1 action at the end of games.
I think it comes and goes, and we may be at a peak for it now, perhaps? Certainly it seemed to me that in the late 00s it was really an issue, and it used to drive me nuts with Billups drove late in a game with not much of a plan other than to draw contact. Then they instituted the Reggie Miller rule somwhere around then, and it calmed down, maybe? I don’t know. These last few years I’ve watched far more college than pro.
I think part of it is that while he’s never been a particularly good off-ball player (he doesn’t cut or run like Steph) and now he’s nearly inert if the ball isn’t in his hands.
Now, obviously, you don’t have Chris Paul and not put the ball in his hands a bunch.
I agree. The driving in only looking to get fouled is analogous with 3 point shooters jumping into players to get a call. The best way to deter it is to have officials not call it (like the “out of control” drive just looking to get a foul). It takes time (but not that much) for players to pick up on this.
In regard to the acting…they should just make it a Technical Foul for flopping if you’re foolish and overact. No way 210 pounds Pat Connaughton’s little shove causes 235 pound Jae Crowder to fly out to halfcourt. Now Crowder did get hit in the face a few times and I understand him going down for those.
Also, CP3 is still the worst. He acts and then complains ALL THE TIME.
Agreed. I think the worst should be reserved for the guys willing to heighten injury risk, but overall, absolutely. It astounds me when they go to replay for a foul they called, but missed the obvious acting, and act like they didn’t notice the acting. And then JVG and Jackson and Breen do it too. "Oh that looks like a basketball play to me,’’ you hear whilst watching over and over again as someone pretends to have taken an elbow on the chin despite said elbow coming not closer than 6 inches to said chin.
Man, what a game, Fingers crossed for two more.
That was a great basketball game. I thought the Bucks free throw shooting just might bite them, but they held on. A few Middleton shots that seem to have no prayer but go anyway.
Paul looked a little slow again tonight, and they were picking on him. A few times in this game, I wondered if Milwaukee actually is better. Then somebody somebody hit another shot over Connaughton. (Man, that guy is a useful player, but he is at the end of defensive rotations time after time after time …)
Shaq got pounded but he also dished a lot out that he didn’t get called for. I don’t know if things totally evened out but he certainly got away with a lot. He was pretty impossible to referee.
This has been an exciting series. I’m not sure why but I’m rooting for the Bucks by a slight margin. It may be because the Suns fans that keep getting shown on camera annoy me. The guy counting with his big bills was as toolish as one can get. That and the knock-off 80’s Nuggets jerseys Phoenix has been wearing most of the playoffs.
With that said, Booker has been very impressive. If this series were taking place in the bubble again, I might be putting my 52% behind the Suns instead of the Bucks.
I mean, the last two games have really turned on two of the most exciting high-leverage plays you’re going to see (the block in game 4, Jrue’s strip and oop to Giannis (and a really tough finish) last night). Hard to ask for more, both games had 4Q comebacks with each team getting off the mat to force an exciting finish.
Giannis is something else
This game has been 
since the tip. Hope Giannis’ back is OK. Also Ben Thompson has me fully on board w his ref conspiracies. Booker has cast a spell!
Hasn’t always been well played but it has been tight