Refs/Bavetta/Injuries result of bad reffing (merged ref threads)

[connerhenry43]

like a lot of you, i have to get up for work tomorrow morning. i am up until 1:30 am to watch a game decided by a 70 year old pathetic old man who is convinced that 20,000 fans, and a nationwide audience have tuned in to watch him ref the game. sloan got the early tech, and it was game over from that point on. no small achievement, but this was the worst officiated game i have seen in a long time.

i am a longtime celtics blog member, do not come on as much as i used to, but i had to vent following this embarassment, as dick bavetta, a sad old man, has once again taken the game away from the players and decided to make himself the go to guy.

i am sure there will be people to defend it, and say the game was fine, and point out certain things the c's did wrong to lose the game (both teams made more than their fair share of mistakes). but if i am going to stay up until 1:30, i just want to see the game decided by the players, not a sad, senile pathetic old man.

as soon as i saw hom on the floor tongiht, i knew it would be a long night. i had no idea it would be as bad as it became. another black eye on the nba and its officials.

[Celtic]

I will not be one of the people defending him, Bavetta was brutal tonight. He put the spotlight on himself as he handed Utah a win, terrible job, he might be done, or at least he should be.

[vinnie]

Bavetta is an embarrassment to the NBA, but you can bet he will be reffing at least two games if not more in the NBA finals. The league is a joke and Stern really doesn't care about the poor officiating.

[connerhenry43]

vinnie, you usually stand up for the refs if i remember corrrectly? tongiht was the nba as bad as it gets, all for a national auduence to see

[rjstaines]

The NBA needs to have an max age limit for refs.  Bevetta might be passing all the tests but he was horrible tonight, missing all sorts of obvious calls under the net.  It's not unprecedented either, in Europe most pro soccer (football) leagues have max ages ranging from 45-55.

Also I'd like to see the stats on every game Dick has reffed this year that the C's have been involved in since I seem to recall the C's opponents being heavily favored foul call wise.

[twinbree]

Remember Bavetta reffed the Mavs game which the Celtics ended up winning despite the questionable officiating. I'm pretty sure he had no intention of letting them run away with this one.

[FLCeltsFan]

With KG in the game we probably would have been able to overcome the horrible officiating.  I have to agree that it was the worst officiated game I have seen in a long time. It was just brutal.   You know the refs are bad when fans on the other team's board agree that the refs gave them the game. 

If you recall, one of Donaghy's allegations involved Bavetta and games that he influenced at the direction of the league office.    Stern supposedly investigated Bavetta and said he was clean, but what do you expect because if Bavetta went down, so did Stern.  But, I think the things that Donaghy said in his statements were true and he just wanted to come clean and Stern covered it up because the league does influence games with the officiating.   They had to be told that the Jazz had to win that game and they officiated that way.  I don't see how an officiating crew could be so bad without doing it purposely. 

[connerhenry43]

is it corruption or are the refs just this bad? the play at the end (tie game, powe gets the board, they hammer at his arm, ball hits bottom of backboard, bavetta, 2 feet away and convinced 20,00 people are there to see him, does his dance, winds up, points utah's way, and then is convinced in his delusional mind that 20,000 people are cheering for him) was one of the worst calls i have ever seen. i thought the LAL game a few weeks ago was bad, but last night was just brutal....a travesty. i wish tommy had done the game because he might have ran onto the court to bodyslam bavetta.

[kenmaine]

OP said it better than I could.
It was obvious from the first quarter when the refs intentionally took Rondo out of the game, that the outcome had been predetermined. I think the players knew they weren't going to be allowed to win this one.
My mouth was actually hanging open with disbelief at two or three of the approximately fifteen bad calls, 90% or more going Utah's way.
I can remember about five atrocious calls, some against Pruitt, Leon, and Scal, that weren't even close.
Sad that the games are sometimes decided by refs who think they're the show.

[celticinorlando]

NBA officials just suck. they control games with calls...keep teams in games...boston was on the short end once again last night

[slamtheking]

I could only stay awake for the first half but what I saw was horrific officiating.  It was so painfully lopsided it was disgusting.  Just blatant, lopsided officiating.  Jazz were all over the C's with no calls and the Jazz were getting calls if they were breathed on.  Horrible.

The call on Pruitt running alongside Williams right after the C's got mugged on their possession was the capper for me.

I knew it wouldn't be a well-officiated game when I saw Bavetta on the floor but this was atrocious even by his standards.  

This was the type of game I like to refer to as a "Donaghy-special" -->so heavily influenced by the refs that it looks like they have money riding on the outcome.

[celticinorlando]

i get the sense that the league offices have instructed officials to call the games closer on boston...esp. in the early stages of games. they get called for some ticky tack stuff while other teams don't

[Andy Jick]

his first name is a self-fulfilling prophecy...

[Andy Jick]

[winsomme]

once again, I thought we had a totally dysfunctional game triggered by poor officiating. It completely screws up a game when there is absolutely no consistency.

they were like "they're really letting these guys play tonight..." ummm, they are? is that why our whole front line was in FT?

Once Rondo got in FT, any rhythm of the  game was lost and IMO the feed to KG that he got hurt on was a weirdly timed play.

I know it's a stretch to blame the officiating for KGs injury, but when you couple the rhythm busting effect of the Boston whistle-happy refs with the absolute swallowing of the whistles against down the stretch, I'm pointing fingers....

They refs should be largely invisible unless they are reigning in an out of hand game, but last night they had their fingerprints all over that thing....