Warning: This post may have been influenced by a bitter Laker loss.
14-1. 14-1. That is a great, almost incredible record, in most sports and in most situations.
14-1
Let that sink in. Now, that is the record of home teams in the Conference Semi-Finals of the NBA Playoffs. Considering the intensity of playoff games, simply pay attention to the magnitude of such a record. It serves as an exemplar of the gargantuan power that home-court advantage has in the NBA.
But what causes such an advantage?
Is it as conventional wisdom says, due to the impact that sleeping in one's own bed has? Or is it due to the home team simply played with more passion and energy and the associated energy of the crowd?
Maybe?
I however, would like to suggest an additional reason for such a disparity.
Referees.
Coming off the Tim Donahey scandal, refs had been under much scrutiny until the incredible race out West took away much of that scrutiny and attention. It would be silly to deny that home teams get the "breaks" from the referees. Look no further than today's Lakers-Jazz game for some proof. With Utah up 2 in Utah, with the ball, Carlos Boozer decked Derek Fisher with an elbow, taking out Fisher and Gasol, who was help up by Fisher's body (on the floor), and thus created a 5-3 for the Jazz. Needless to say, the situation was compounded when a touch foul was called on Lamar Odom to set up a 3 point play. On the opposite end of the floor, even with the Laker player missing the field goal attempt, such a "foul" was not called.
Furthermore, another practice in NBA officiating that concerns me regards how flagrant fouls are assessed. Such fouls are assessed based on the player-floor contact rather than the player-player contact. Such an act is completely against the spirit of the call, which is based on intent and original player-player contact. Why must a team be put at a disadvantage when a big fouls a more fragile or smaller player who the falls in an awkward manner? Or when, a player takes off without proper balance gets contact and falls awkwardly?
Please do not misconstrue this post as having no solid points. I, like many, would like to see games being decided due to ability, rather than some referees.
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5 comments:
Comments would be appreciated, thanks.
The Turiaf call seemed to be made because the foul came after the whistle. There wasn't a huge delay, but I suppose the referees thought there had been enough time for Ronny to check himself.
But let's not kid ourselves. The Lakers easily got as many bad calls as Utah today. The Korver "elbow" on Sasha, Kobe's AND1 with a few minutes left, when Kobe pushed off on AK in front of the Utah bench, etc.
And all this talk about how Utah fouls an incredible incredible amount? They only commit, on average, 4 more fouls than LA. So how would you explain that huge discrepancy in games 1 and 2?
In conclusion, get over it please.
I didn't see the game, but I am amazed at how many people are talking about this. Even Utah fans are agreeing that the calls were poor.
I'm not making excuses for the Laker loss. They deserved to lose due to their inability to have any form of an efficent offense in the overtime as well their inability to hit their freebies. But, it is still disconcerting that mone court has such a large impact.
I wrote about the same topic on www.laballtalk.com
I hyped your story on BallHype... this call just drove me crazy. The referees in general have made me go insane. I'm sick of the difference in fouls on the Utah Jazz between them at home and them in LA. Apparently, Carlos Boozer doesn't foul in Utah and body fouls get called as flagrants on the Lakers while Price's body bump on Luke's head isn't even a foul.
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