Are Referees Favouring the Raps Now?

[BasketballCrush]

Since both teams are not world beaters, it could be that there is some confusion as to who should get the favorable calls.


Cousins and Lowry got the most last night, so stature and popularity certainly helps out.

[ReubenJRD]

Definitely agree with the bold. I thought you were implying the referees had an impact on the game - apologies for that.

No worries, I mean, had the Raptors played up to their recent speed, the reffing would have been non-existent from the Raptors' point of view.

[mcHAPPY]

Oh no, I don't disagree, but the calls/non-calls tonight were killer. I thought there were moving screens, shuffling of feet, some foul-type contact, and too much inconsistency in terms of 'don't make the call here, but make the call there.'

The Raptors don't have anyone to blame other than themselves. Came out on the warm-up as if the game was going to be handed to them (someone making the point that they were basically hanging out with James Johnson), flat-footed defensively, no communication, no focus (that can be noticed with missed FT's and opportunistic plays), and quite frankly they played like the 4-19 team. No ball movement, and too many turnovers. I think after the 1st half, they had maybe 8 assists with 7 turnovers or something like that.

My point is, the calling overall in the game was terrible. Either side for Toronto/Sacramento. The reffing has an impact of it's own on the game, but players/coaches are the ones who control the outcome.

Definitely agree with the bold. I thought you were implying the referees had an impact on the game - apologies for that.

[ReubenJRD]

But those types of sequences happen every game. The Raptors have no one to blame for this game but themselves. Assigning blame to referees diminishes the impact of their own effort, focus, execution, and decisions - all of which were very poor from coaching on down to players. If the Raptors played to their ability, as they have of late, the game would have been an easy W-ictory. The fact the Raptors could play so poorly and still have a shot to win down the stretch had some three's fallen is mind numbing.

Oh no, I don't disagree, but the calls/non-calls tonight were killer. I thought there were moving screens, shuffling of feet, some foul-type contact, and too much inconsistency in terms of 'don't make the call here, but make the call there.'

The Raptors don't have anyone to blame other than themselves. Came out on the warm-up as if the game was going to be handed to them (someone making the point that they were basically hanging out with James Johnson), flat-footed defensively, no communication, no focus (that can be noticed with missed FT's and opportunistic plays), and quite frankly they played like the 4-19 team. No ball movement, and too many turnovers. I think after the 1st half, they had maybe 8 assists with 7 turnovers or something like that.

My point is, the calling overall in the game was terrible. Either side for Toronto/Sacramento. The reffing has an impact of it's own on the game, but players/coaches are the ones who control the outcome.

[mcHAPPY]

I could agree we that, but when Demar gets slapped while handling the ball, bumped on the way to the rim, and hit by 3 purple shirts at the rim, and no 'tweek'? Well, it's life of a Toronto Raptor.

But those types of sequences happen every game. The Raptors have no one to blame for this game but themselves. Assigning blame to referees diminishes the impact of their own effort, focus, execution, and decisions - all of which were very poor from coaching on down to players. If the Raptors played to their ability, as they have of late, the game would have been an easy W-ictory. The fact the Raptors could play so poorly and still have a shot to win down the stretch had some three's fallen is mind numbing.

[ReubenJRD]

The refs look perfectly sane. The Raptors were the bipolar crew last night.

I could agree we that, but when Demar gets slapped while handling the ball, bumped on the way to the rim, and hit by 3 purple shirts at the rim, and no 'tweek'? Well, it's life of a Toronto Raptor.

[mcHAPPY]

After watching the game vs. Sacramento, the refs must be bipolar.

The refs look perfectly sane. The Raptors were the bipolar crew last night.

[Craiger]

Its a combination of:

The big difference is the Raps are playing well. When you play well a missed call is usually not going to determine the game.

and

The reality is .. people were complaining because we werent playing well or winning .. looking for excuses

I'd also add that it didn't help having Devlin and Jack on a 'no call' campaign.

[ReubenJRD]

After watching the game vs. Sacramento, the refs must be bipolar.

[Gman]

God no...there's still a massive discrepancy of free throw attempts. We are still the lowest on the totem pole when it comes to that. Just as we were the 2nd lowest on the totem pole last year.

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/te...ptedDifference

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/te...ence/year/2012

I don't think it's a conspiracy. I just think that we've been bad for a long time and we're a Canadian team.
The first is easy to explain, we've been a bad team for so long and have no significant names on our jerseys so we don't get the benefit of the doubt.

The second one is about competing in a country that is told the moment they come out of the womb that they are the greatest country in the world and the most important thing is beating other countries...and then when this is compounded by the million other things that growing up in America instills in them and bingo the refs have a natural psychological predisposition to favour their countries own teams. I don't think it's intentional. I think it's just their subconscious programming being played out.

And now that that clip of Amir has gone viral with articles in USA Today and Sports Illustrated about a f*ckin' double dribble? Are you kidding me? How many bad calls are in a basketball game? But they decide to write countless articles about this one.
Don't be surprised if we get reamed even worse by the refs now that they are being publicly shamed for making this call.

[LBF]

Hahaha, "are refs favouring the raps"...

How dare you ask such a thing! You must be a witch, burn,witch,burn!!!

[RapRepRip]

Personally, I think that the refs do not want any mouth guards thrown at them any more

[planetmars]

The NBA has always had a referee problem and it looks like it comes from top down. The last 7/8 games where we were playing well were all against mediocre to bad teams. If we were playing teams like the Heat or Thunder than they would get all the calls.

It's the worst part about this league.. hopefully once Adam Silver takes over he'll change things up - but I'm not holding my breath.

[Pill]

They still blow a lot of calls. We just arent walking on the edge of a knife during this fools gold run we are on. Wait till OKC and then review the temperament of this board myself included.

[Pong]

I don't know. When a player can get away with this, sure seems like we have the refs in our pockets..