Ariza's last foul on Harden should have been an offensive foul?

That previous post of mine wasn't serious btw

 

If that foul was not called, we would have been arguing about how the initial holding was not called from Ariza.

Plus, that free throw only gave us 1 point, had the Wiz played some hard defence, we would have still lost.

 

In that play I see Harden trying to get Ariza off of him. Ariza initiated the contact and if you have somebody put their arm through yours while it's around theirs it clearly is difficult to detangle. This works both ways.

 

What about the screen by Howard? It could have been called an illegal pick.

 

This. He's just a troll.

I thought they did review it. If they didn't then why didn't they? I know there is a rule about it and I thought they could review any play in the last 2 minutes of the 4th (and OT).

 

They ain't calling that ****. - Kobe Bryant.

 

Howard was unable to set a screen because of the illegal defense. Harden forced the refs into calling it. If they make any call then they HAVE to call the illegal defense because that will be the first thing shown in every replay.

 

Illegal pick only occurs when the screener moves in order to draw the contact. Howard was stationary when Ariza bumped into him, and only moved when Ariza bumped into him.

 

You are right. Someone did say Howard was still moving before Ariza bumped him but after watching the replay it was the other way around.

 

I think it's pretty silly people are getting personal about this. I think most people would agree that it was technically a foul. I don't think Harden did anything wrong. The worry is what happens when whistles aren't favoring us anymore? Everyone knows Harden embellishes things. What happens when refs get sick of making the calls and just makes players play through it. That's all I'm saying.

 

One of the only certainties here is that "The Realist" is always about the furthest person from reality.

 

It was an ugly win. It's still lipstick on a pig and doesn't fix what a terrible coaching issue we have. Lin hate here is ridiculous, kid gets no credit for the coaching.

 

Because of a technicality in the rule book that the NBA needs to fix.

The team being fouled should have the option to either take 1 FT plus the ball, or 2 FTs and the other team get it -- like usual.

Reason being, the spirit of the rule is to protect the team being fouled (in this case, the Rockets). To prevent Hack-a-Howard or other such away-from-the-ball nonsense from deciding a game in the last two minutes, the rule is in place to make the penalty stiffer for the penalized team than the usual.

But in some rare circumstances, such as last night, it cuts the other way. If the offensive team is down 1 or 2 points and has a great FT shooter fouled, and there are under 5 seconds remaining... their odds are MUCH greater of hitting two free throws than they are making one and then making a field goal in under 4 seconds. That rule absolutely could have bitten us in a very unfair way -- thankfully, James made the play and it didn't.

I hope Morey mentions it to the league office, because it's a very easy fix and is necessary to protect the spirit of the rule.

 

That's why I don't like our chances in the playoffs, especially if we play the Clippers. You have to take everything and be relentless like the last 2 Rockets championship teams. Soft players like Yao and McGrady who resort to shooting jumpers when the game gets too physical don't last in the playoffs.

Harden and Howard may not be as good as Yao and McGrady (who were regular season champs at their pinnacle), but they will have more playoff success because they are more physical. The only problem is Harden relies on embellishing the call (I hate calling him a flopper because then what does that make Chris Paul?) and he plays to get the foul. In the playoffs they don't give you those fouls every time. Then what? Is he going to jack up those mid range shots? He has to stop playing for the whistle, because they're not giving him that in the 4th quarter during the playoffs and might even call the moving screen on Howard.

 

The other side of the coin.

What happens if the refs stop ignoring our illegal defense? What if they start blowing the whistle on our obvious fouls? What if the refs didn't let us get away with hacking a guy on the arm when he had an open lane to the basket? What if the refs stop letting us get away with off-ball bear hugging defense?

One could equally argue that when the Wizards were unable to get away with illegal defense at the end of the game (by getting called for a foul for hugging on to Harden), their honest defense was not good enough to protect their lead with only 4 seconds left to play.

 

Yao was more hindered by calls against him than injuries. The having to ridiculously have to over compensate to prevent fouling out each and every game led to injuries.

 

At the very end when Harden locked Ariza's arm and fell, that should have been a no call. BUT everything prior to that was a foul. Ariza's right arm on Hardens hip all the way clearly impeded Harden from using Dwights screen. The refs didn't do their job so Harden made it easier for them.

 

OP's not paying attention. Ariza is grabbing his arm the whole time. Besides, who cares. It's about time the Rockets start getting superstar calls.

 

Not that I'm necessarily complaining, but I was really surprised that Wall got the call with four seconds left. I thought it was an unwritten rule that fouls on last second drives were usually not called. It's why you see much more jump shooting in that type of situation.

As far as our play, to the letter of the law that's a foul, but I can see why DC fans are pissed because that's a foul you could call on almost any inbounds play. But again, as other people have stated even without that play we're going to overtime. The other interesting thing to me was that Parsons actually threw the ball in. I think that forced the refs to make a call because now there's a player on the floor and the ball is rolling out of bounds. Someone had to blow the whistle.

It's funny to go to other sites today and see the conspiracy hounds saying the refs want us to win. The same complaint people here would make if this happened to us against the Lakers and Miami, I guess it's all a matter of perspective.