By: Billy Hoyle @wwnetbillyhoyle
For some reason it has become verboten to criticize the refereeing in NBA games. Whether it is seen as a losers mentality, frowned upon by the league or just bad form, for whatever reason, it’s not done. I think that’s crap. When something as subjective as officiating an NBA game is so heavily weighted in favor of one team over another it needs to be pointed out. The calls that the Golden State Warriors had to overcome to in a road win against the New York Knicks on Wednesday were consistently bad, inconsistently exercised and insistently hamstringing. It shows a lot of character that they managed to overcome this handicap and not only prevail but to do so without losing their cool and getting a technical called for objecting. The fact that the referees can play such an obviously unfair role in a game by not only keeping the Knicks in the game when they are so clearly being outplayed but robbing the Warriors of momentum to turn the contest into the laugher, that it so very definitely should have been, is a black mark on the sport and the credibility that David Stern’s enforcers so desperately need. When the game reverts into a one sided free-throw shooting contest it isn’t enjoyable to watch in the least.
Despite the benefit of atrocious officiating giving the game high scoring to Amare Stoudemire with 33 pts on 16 free-throws attempted, David Lee was the force of the game. He played like the “Every Day Dave” that he was billed coming to the Warriors. He played a tough, gritty and skilled game earning every one of his 28 points and 10 rebounds and playing surprisingly tough defense on the man who replaced him in New York, Stoudemire, garnering 4 steals. Dave fought through a gash in his elbow in the second half that was acquired when an errant elbow of Lee’s forever separated Wilson Chandler from one of his incisors. Lee played through very obvious pain, still collecting rebounds, nailing jumpers and lay-ups and helping ice the game with some key free-throws.
It was a tremendous floor game by all involved with equal parts tremendous scoring by the two stars in the back court, Monta Ellis and Steph Curry, taking turns running the point and key shooting by swingman and 3 point marksman Dorrell Wright.
All five starters scored in double digits and shot 50% or better from the field. It would have very much been a rout if not for the aforementioned officiating. Typically it’s understood that officiating is not questioned in a win but it was JUST THAT BAD.
I hate to complain in light of a win but the Warriors were clearly the superior team and didn’t deserve for it to come down to the wire in the fashion it did. This is the first game of a back to back and they should feel great going into Chicago to face the Bulls tonight. Playing the way they have should put any team on high alert when the Warriors come to town. I just hope that the men in grey take a back seat tomorrow and let the players decide the game.
It’s funny, living on the East coast, the same thing can be said when eastern conference teams travel out west, but yes, there were plenty of shady calls against the Warriors in the Garden.
The good thing is Golden State has enough talent to overcome the poor officiating and look like a legitimate playoff team so far this season.
I have also noticed the large discrepancy in fouls called against the Warriors, particularly versus their 3 opponents on the first 3 games of their Eastern trip. It’s been infuriating, watching the other teams parade to the line on ticky-tack calls, while the Warriors can get knocked to the ground, (Ellis against Toronto anyone?) with no call made. Or the play where D. Wright was fouled twice on the same play and no call, instead they T-up the coach for taking exception to it. Ridiculous.
Another note, I had a fit when I saw Radmanovic brought into the game in the closing minutes of the 4th quarter last night to guard Stoudamire (no surprise to me, the Warriors gave up 9 straight points while he was in for about 40 seconds). I don’t like seeing him on the floor in crunch time. He’s a poor defender, especially in the post; he doesn’t rebound well; he’s making terrible turnovers, the inbounds pass thrown behind Monta straight to Villanueva… I don’t see much upside when he’s in. He’s a three-point specialist and that’s about it (Given that we have Curry and D. Wright, he’s more like our 3rd or 4th best option at the only thing he does well). Vlad is a liability in my opinion, and until he shapes up, he should be 9th or 10th off the bench.
On the positive side, it’s good to see that the Warriors are showing the poise to win close games this year, going 5-1 in games decided by 7 or less. Sadly, some of those games should not have been close at the end, particularly the last two. Definitely need some better ball control, bad turnovers have been a key issue in letting teams back into the game after putting them down by 15-20 points. Hope they can fight out the next couple wins on the road and get back to Oracle to torch the Pistons and Knicks next week.