Spurs (12-3) at Celtics (9-6) Game #16 11/25/16

[Ilikesports17]

We took 10 more three pointers than them and were outrebounded by 10.  Most fouls happen when you attack the paint and mix it up inside.  Spurs are much bigger than us.  We settled for long range bombs and long jumpers that kept us out of the paint and limited our potential to draw fouls.  That's who our team is.  Don't whine about the foul disparity. Spurs are a better team. We should be proud we kept it close against one of the few real contenders in the league.  Nice game.  We still look like a solid 55 win team this year.

We also took 10 more overall shots than them, too, so in fact both teams took 57 two-pointers with them getting 9 more fouls. So your point isn't applicable here, and you just pretty much proved the point that they had an unfair shake on the fouls. Nice try, though. 

shots where fouls are called do not count as attempts, so San Antonio took at least a handful more 2 pointers.

yup

Whining about refs is the most pathetic thing fans do.  There's so many games you could claim we won because of favoritism from the refs.  Nobody ever talks about that.   

I don't see the point in being a sore loser.  San Antonio outplayed us.  They are a better team.  It is what it is.    Nice game.

I think its certainly possible that you can get the short end of the stick in any given game.

90% of the time it all evens out in the end.

Especially when you consider no one in this game is really a recipient of "superstar calls"

I'm not saying refs are perfect.  They'll miss calls from time to time.  But it's not "90%" of the time it evens out... it's 100% of the time.   Over the course of the NBA season, you'll win as many bad calls as you lose.   You'll win as many games as a result of the refs as you'll lose.  It's just part of the game.  Out of principle, I refuse to ever blame a loss on the refs, because once you start doing that, you need to also blame wins on refs otherwise you're a hypocrite.    I'd rather not participate in that.   Part of this game is being prepared for the fact that refs are humans and there is going to be some amount of human error.   You can never blame refs for the outcome of a game.  It's on the team.

That and more often than not the "bad calls" people use up as shining examples of a "badly called game" aren't actually bad calls.   Easy to get worked up, especially as a celtic fan, when our broadcast team notoriously slants homer.  I LOVE Tommy, but he's far from an unbiased announcer.   He continues the tradition of Johnny Most where we're the good guys, they are the bad guys, and the refs are out to get us.  Tommy famously freaks out about the refs and keeps his mouth shut when a bad call goes our way.   Not surprising that Celtic fans are more apt to cry about refs when they spend the entire game listening to a homer announcer scream about the refs.  It is what it is.  Part of our basketball culture.   

Guess how many comments there are about the refs in the game thread on the Spurs subreddit?  Literally zero.    Want to know what the #1 upvoted comment is?

"Mannnn I cannot stand these Celtics commentators!!"

I'm not surprised:  https://www.reddit.com/r/NBASpurs/comments/5eurju/game_thread_the_san_antonio_spurs_123_vs_the/

This is not necessarily true. Firstoff, the NBA has a history of corrupt officiating, so historically, it has not all evened out.

Second, I am not sure if you are rejecting the concept of superstar calls. I wont reject that concept. I think superstars get much more latitude with officials.

If you want to talk within the scope of league history, you lose that argument and if you want to talk within the scope of this season, you lose that argument too, because based on the reputations of individuals on your team and your team as a whole, the game is called differently. It generally even out but I do believe there are a few guys who get the benefit of superstar calls. I think over the course of the season those Miami Heat teams got more calls than they didnt get. The 08 Celtics I think got similar treatment. A lot of those Kobe Bryant Lakers teams got the same treatment as well.

Let me ammend this:

I think certain teams and players get more of the benefit of the doubt on calls. This leads to some level of unbalanced officiating, but it is not large enough to debate on a game to game level especially after a game with the San Antonio Spurs!

[Neurotic Guy]

I admit the officiating wasn't good today, but isn't it true (even in pick-up games) that when you or your team is not as good as the other person/team, that you tend to foul more?   I mean, when I am up against a superior player, I am MUCH more likely to foul him than he is to foul me.   In games where we play inferior opponents and are getting beat on offensive or defensive discipline, speed, ball movement and beat on the boards (well...), etc.. we will tend to foul more.  Bottom line, I am less concerned about getting fewer calls against the Spurs than I am when we get fewer calls against the Nets.

[alldaboston]

We took 10 more three pointers than them and were outrebounded by 10.  Most fouls happen when you attack the paint and mix it up inside.  Spurs are much bigger than us.  We settled for long range bombs and long jumpers that kept us out of the paint and limited our potential to draw fouls.  That's who our team is.  Don't whine about the foul disparity. Spurs are a better team. We should be proud we kept it close against one of the few real contenders in the league.  Nice game.  We still look like a solid 55 win team this year.

We also took 10 more overall shots than them, too, so in fact both teams took 57 two-pointers with them getting 9 more fouls. So your point isn't applicable here, and you just pretty much proved the point that they had an unfair shake on the fouls. Nice try, though. 

shots where fouls are called do not count as attempts, so San Antonio took at least a handful more 2 pointers.

yup

Whining about refs is the most pathetic thing fans do.  There's so many games you could claim we won because of favoritism from the refs.  Nobody ever talks about that.   

I don't see the point in being a sore loser.  San Antonio outplayed us.  They are a better team.  It is what it is.    Nice game.

I think its certainly possible that you can get the short end of the stick in any given game.

90% of the time it all evens out in the end.

Especially when you consider no one in this game is really a recipient of "superstar calls"

I'm not saying refs are perfect.  They'll miss calls from time to time.  But it's not "90%" of the time it evens out... it's 100% of the time.   Over the course of the NBA season, you'll win as many bad calls as you lose.   You'll win as many games as a result of the refs as you'll lose.  It's just part of the game.  Out of principle, I refuse to ever blame a loss on the refs, because once you start doing that, you need to also blame wins on refs otherwise you're a hypocrite.    I'd rather not participate in that.   Part of this game is being prepared for the fact that refs are humans and there is going to be some amount of human error.   You can never blame refs for the outcome of a game.  It's on the team.

That and more often than not the "bad calls" people use up as shining examples of a "badly called game" aren't actually bad calls.   Easy to get worked up, especially as a celtic fan, when our broadcast team notoriously slants homer.  I LOVE Tommy, but he's far from an unbiased announcer.   He continues the tradition of Johnny Most where we're the good guys, they are the bad guys, and the refs are out to get us.  Tommy famously freaks out about the refs and keeps his mouth shut when a bad call goes our way.   Not surprising that Celtic fans are more apt to cry about refs when they spend the entire game listening to a homer announcer scream about the refs.  It is what it is.  Part of our basketball culture.   

Guess how many comments there are about the refs in the game thread on the Spurs subreddit?  Literally zero.    Want to know what the #1 upvoted comment is?

"Mannnn I cannot stand these Celtics commentators!!"

I'm not surprised:  https://www.reddit.com/r/NBASpurs/comments/5eurju/game_thread_the_san_antonio_spurs_123_vs_the/

Lar, go onto your second favorite subreddit, r/NBA. And look at the post game thread. One of the highest comments is from a bulls fan, saying how bad the officiating was.

Edit: here you go: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/5evkj5/comment/dafg13h?st=IVYEY3GI&sh=f8a8f812

Please tell me again how biased we are. The fans of other teams even said it was bad officiating



Let me be clear. I'm not saying we lost the game because of the refs. What I'm saying is, you can't fault us for saying the officiating was poor and give me some link to the Spurs subreddit, when unbiased fans in the NBA subreddit also realized that the game was not officiated fairly.

[mctyson]

We took 10 more three pointers than them and were outrebounded by 10.  Most fouls happen when you attack the paint and mix it up inside.  Spurs are much bigger than us.  We settled for long range bombs and long jumpers that kept us out of the paint and limited our potential to draw fouls.  That's who our team is.  Don't whine about the foul disparity. Spurs are a better team. We should be proud we kept it close against one of the few real contenders in the league.  Nice game.  We still look like a solid 55 win team this year.

We also took 10 more overall shots than them, too, so in fact both teams took 57 two-pointers with them getting 9 more fouls. So your point isn't applicable here, and you just pretty much proved the point that they had an unfair shake on the fouls. Nice try, though. 

shots where fouls are called do not count as attempts, so San Antonio took at least a handful more 2 pointers.

yup

Whining about refs is the most pathetic thing fans do.  There's so many games you could claim we won because of favoritism from the refs.  Nobody ever talks about that.   

I don't see the point in being a sore loser.  San Antonio outplayed us.  They are a better team.  It is what it is.    Nice game.

I think its certainly possible that you can get the short end of the stick in any given game.

90% of the time it all evens out in the end.

Especially when you consider no one in this game is really a recipient of "superstar calls"

I'm not saying refs are perfect.  They'll miss calls from time to time.  But it's not "90%" of the time it evens out... it's 100% of the time.   Over the course of the NBA season, you'll win as many bad calls as you lose.   You'll win as many games as a result of the refs as you'll lose.  It's just part of the game.  Out of principle, I refuse to ever blame a loss on the refs, because once you start doing that, you need to also blame wins on refs otherwise you're a hypocrite.    I'd rather not participate in that.   Part of this game is being prepared for the fact that refs are humans and there is going to be some amount of human error.   You can never blame refs for the outcome of a game.  It's on the team.

That and more often than not the "bad calls" people use up as shining examples of a "badly called game" aren't actually bad calls.   Easy to get worked up, especially as a celtic fan, when our broadcast team notoriously slants homer.  I LOVE Tommy, but he's far from an unbiased announcer.   He continues the tradition of Johnny Most where we're the good guys, they are the bad guys, and the refs are out to get us.  Tommy famously freaks out about the refs and keeps his mouth shut when a bad call goes our way.   Not surprising that Celtic fans are more apt to cry about refs when they spend the entire game listening to a homer announcer scream about the refs.  It is what it is.  Part of our basketball culture.   

Guess how many comments there are about the refs in the game thread on the Spurs subreddit?  Literally zero.    Want to know what the #1 upvoted comment is?

"Mannnn I cannot stand these Celtics commentators!!"

I'm not surprised:  https://www.reddit.com/r/NBASpurs/comments/5eurju/game_thread_the_san_antonio_spurs_123_vs_the/

No one is blaming the refs for the loss.  That type of reaction can and should be dismissed out of hand when a 48 minute game has ~100 possessions.

The Cs lost because the Spurs shot 45% from deep, Cs shot 35%, and the Cs had a few bad defensive/rebounding mistakes at the end of the game (not to mention IT and Smart missing bunnies).

Having said THAT...

This crew today was truly awful.  San Antonio played as physically as Boston, the Cs ATTACKED THE PAINT, and they were dominated at the FT line.

Not only that, but they made some silly calls, overturning each others calls, and genuinely looked confused.  I am allowed to criticize refs when they do a terrible job and tonight they did.

[mr. dee]

We need to upgrade our front court. Period. Refs or no refs will not save us from terrible rebounding of the bench unit.

[LarBrd33]

We need to upgrade our front court. Period. Refs or no refs will not save us from terrible rebounding of the bench unit.

a little of that.  A little of our team not having a superstar.  Our team is very good this year but nobody really considers us to be on the level of the 1st tier teams like the Spurs or cavs or the Globetrotter tier team (the warriors).  Happy we kept it close.  Great effort overshadowed by some predictable bellyaching about the refs.

[GratefulCs]

We need to upgrade our front court. Period. Refs or no refs will not save us from terrible rebounding of the bench unit.

a little of that.  A little of our team not having a superstar.  Our team is very good this year but nobody really considers us to be on the level of the 1st tier teams like the Spurs or cavs or the Globetrotter tier team (the warriors).  Happy we kept it close.  Great effort overshadowed by some predictable bellyaching about the refs.

to be fair and balanced, marc davis is not a friend of the celtics to say the least

[alewilliam789]

Don't care what anybody says the momentum given to the Spurs by the refs clearly calling the game in their favor and affected the outcome. You can't expect a team to overcome no-calls on one side after being hacked and then get touch calls on the other end and have it not weigh down on their mentality. Unbelievable and those refs should be fined.

[JBcat]

Can't blame the refs.  This team as currently constructed can't compete for a title.  The Spurs can.

This has nothing to do with the game that was just played.

We play this team in the playoffs we get swept - with maybe one game being close.

great, i'd love to be in the NBA Finals!

I saw this post, and was thinking if the Spurs make it to the finals just maybe Griffin or Durant will bolt in FA giving us a chance at signing them. Lol