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Re: Celtics had a growth spurt

Exactly Tam. Thank you. That's exactly what I was trying to say, only you said it better.

I hate to be labeled as the type to blame everything on the refs when we lose. I fully agree Paul has not played all that well and that he has area's he needs to improve. However, the lack of calls only makes it worse. There were numerous plays like the one you mentioned that happened last night, and happen each and every game. I'd say for every time Paul goes in out of control, there are 7 or 8 times he is under complete control. He is able to weave his way around defenders but like you say, often times can't get the call while three guys hit him. There IS a difference between Paul throwing himself into a defender, and him beating a defender and then getting grabbed and pulled at on his way to the hoop without a whistle.

And I couldn't agree more about the calls last night. I too see the instances when Paul is out of control and many times an offensive foul is justified. But last nights calls were horrible. Jordan can outstretch his arm to push Russell to the ground in order to get his shot off. Paul can't even be in the act of moving away from a guy without being whistled.

And while I am on my tirade, does anyone else notice Jiri getting no respect. How many times do you see him backing off while a guy drives but still getting a foul called on him? There was one in particular last night that was just plain disgusting. Jirir, with arms straight up in the air, frantically backpedaling as fast as he could, while Redd buries the shoulder and charges in, and of course the fould on Jirir. The difference with Jiri is we should almost expect it to a degree since he is a rookie. He still has to 'earn his stripes'. That should not be a problem with Pierce.


From: Tammo29@xxxxxxx
To: celtics@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Celtics had a growth spurt Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 15:38:05 EST

>>>>>Shawn wrote:

How many times per night do we see him driving and 3 or 4 defenders
converge on him and hit him while he is in the air with no whistle?



>>>>>I think you've answered your own question. Officials see Pierce driving
wildly into a crowd of defenders and throwing his body into them to get
bailed out. They don't reward that kind of play for anyone. Pierce is
out of control during his drives to the basket far more than most stars.
>>>>>Watch Kobe. Watch Iverson. They're under control.

Interesting hypothesis. However, the wonderfully under control Kobe has had
68 offensive fouls in the last two years while the horribly out of control
Pierce has had 73.
Hardly much of a difference.
Look, every player who goes to the basket hard will get his fair share of
offensive fouls. That doesn't keep the officials from calling the game fairly.
Pierce isn't the worst offender, in fact he isn't even in the top 6. I
haven't seen officials change the way they call a game for Jermain O'Neal (44 last
year) or Richard Hamilton (46). It is up to the officials to take each play on
it's own merit and not to presume one way or the other.

Point is only one of the offensive foul calls against him last night even
remotely resembled the scenario you put forth. That was the first one. It was
also a horrible call because the defender was still moving forward when they
collided, never mind when Pierce took off. Of the other two the second one was a
complete joke. Paul made a move away from the defender, not into him. They
didn't even touch. The guy knew he was beat so he flopped. How any official
fell for that is beyond me. The third was the most legit of the three but I've
seen far worse not called. Still, being it was his 6th it's not unreasonable
to say it was a stupid foul.
There are plenty of times he beats his man and gets hit or grabbed by other
guys with no call. It happened in the first half last night. He weaved his
way beautifully through defenders while two guys grabbed at his arms from either
side and a third grabbed ahold of his pants from behind all without a single
official seeing anything wrong.
He didn't throw himself at anyone and he was perfectly under control. So why
no foul?
Don't tell me that Michael Redd wouldn't have gotten that call last night.
He went to the line 11 times without near that kind of contact.
I think Paul hit the nail on the head last night. We aren't getting calls
because we aren't winning. We didn't win last night partly because we didn't
get calls (except for Hunter who couldn't make them anyway). It all a viscous
cycle. And it's not just Paul. However, the sad thing is even Chicago and
Orlando gets calls at home. Paul actually has gotten more free throws on the road
this year than at home, by a large margin.

TAM

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