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The Houston Rockets think their attendance at last season's Western Conference finals cost them an NBA championship. In a report sent since then to the league, the net result of 81 missed calls and potential non-calls in the seventh game of this series between According to the report, the Golden State Warriors and a cover note were obtained by ESPN.
"The referees have probably changed the future NBA champion," said the memo to Byron Spruell, president of NBA league operations. "There can be no worse result for the NBA."
The Rockets never actually sent the memo to Spruell, as they ended up communicating his messages – including, according to them, costing them the title in 2018 – in face-to-face meetings with league officials, according to several sources .
They presented to the league their analysis of the seventh match. As The Athletic explained for the first time after the controversial victory of Golden State's first game in the semifinal of the conference on Sunday night, the Rockets' analysis uses the official interpretation of the NBA.
The full report obtained by ESPN lists 81 calls, non-calls and violations in total. He concludes that these 81 occurrences cost Houston 18.6 points in total.
In its own reports, the league does not attach points worth to missed calls and non-calls.
"As we told the Rockets, we do not agree with their methodology," NBA spokesman Mike Bass told ESPN on Monday.
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The league has provided Houston which is essentially a full version of game 7 of the last two minute minutes published after tight games. The report lists the incorrect calls. the faults and violations that should have been called but were not; faults and violations that would have been visible only, according to the league, with a better revision of the video; and "potential breaches" where the league can not reach a definitive conclusion as to whether a fault was deserved.
The Rockets seem to have incorporated all such cases in the report, including those that benefited the Warriors. For example: with about 6:10 remaining in the first quarter, Stephen Curry drove on the right side of the ground. Gerald Green, the Rocket defending Curry, placed his right arm on Curry's hip while Curry stood up for a layup. There was no call. The NBA has reported that it was a "potential breach" – inconclusive, according to Houston analysis. The Rockets considered this a mistake costing 1.8 points to the Warriors – a figure that seems to have been derived from the percentage of free throws from Curry's career.
Similarly, the Houston report reported a foul on James Harden's missed layup, but the Rockets kept control of the ball and scored; Houston in its analysis counted this as a net benefit for themselves of 0.3 point – the difference between the actual basket that they scored and the expected value of two free throws from Harden.
The Rockets attached such values in points in each case in their own analysis. While there was only about 10.40 in the third quarter, Eric Gordon lost the ball by dribbling Curry's foot. In the game, it was a live roll. The league considered that it was "a potential offense" by kicking Curry, according to Houston analysis. That means it could have been a kick, but there is no way to say conclusively. The Rockets counted that as 1.1 points lost, using what appears to have been an estimate of their mid-field points per possession, according to league sources. (They used this figure of 1.1 for all those coins ending Houston's possessions.)
Another: With about 5:05 remaining in the third quarter, Trevor Ariza attempted to attack a rider from outside the restricted area and made contact with Curry, who attempted to shoot a charge. No call was made. The league report reported that it was another "potential breach" inconclusive, according to Houston analysis. Houston counted for 1.7 point loss, again using Ariza's free throw percentage.
With only 8:55 left in the third quarter, Kevon Looney bounced back from Klay Thompson. While Looney was preparing for a putback, Gordon made contact with him with a contact who was not called. Looney missed. Looney jumped to try to get the ball in, and Harden jumped to block Looney's shot – making contact with Looney's arm and upper body. Again, no call has been made. The loose ball ricocheted for Curry, who passed it to Kevin Durant for an open 3-pointer that came in.
The league cited the attempt to block Harden as a potential offense – a possible foul, but the league could not say conclusively that it was a fault, even after scrutiny, according to Houston analysis. Houston concluded that the non-appeal cost them two points. If the officials had blamed Harden, Looney would have gone to the line for two shots. He is a 61 percent career pitch shooter; Houston tied an expected value of one point to a move of two Looney strokes on the line. The foul was not called and Durant hit a three-pointer – two points higher than the Warriors should have scored, according to Houston's accounting, if the officials had whistled Harden.
Houston found the biggest negative impact on Harden's 3-point fouls – the same calls that sparked controversy after Sunday's game 1, when Harden went to the ground after several 3-point scoring attempts. Some of these seem to have been unnamed faults, according to this description sunday evening Joe Borgia, NBA Senior Vice President for Replay and Referee Operations. But Borgia said Sunday's referees were right not to call Draymond Green's "point-of-play" foul of the 3-point potential equalizing Harden's match in the final seconds. Borgia said that Harden had his legs forward, invading the space to which Green was entitled. (The two-minute report, released Monday afternoon, confirmed Borgia's analysis.)
The record of the seventh match of last year reported "call point" fouls without appeal, including a 3 pointers missing from Harden, while he remained around 3:40 at second quarter. Jordan Bell jumped into the Harden landing area. The referees did not blow a whistle, but the league later concluded that they should have done so, according to the Houston report. (The league has indeed felt that a fault on Bell, sources say.)
In their memo – that the Rockets did not finally send because they communicated his message in person – Houston recommended adding a fourth referee to the field and asking the league to put available to each team the complete part arbitration reports. for each match. They also claim that a trip to the final would have generated at least $ 20 million in additional revenue.
The Rockets also maintain in their memo that the veteran officials "show the greatest partiality against our players".
"The reason we find ourselves in this situation," says the memo, "is that the efforts to improve the referees have been too slow, not extensive enough and have been held back by well-established referees who oppose to reform. " The Rockets recommended that the playoff referees' assignments be determined "exclusively" by the accuracy of the calls, regardless of the level of experience.
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