Grimes just hit a huge and one three (which of course he missed the free throw) and the Garden was absolutely rocking with all momentum on the Knicks side. We go into a 3 minute commercial break to see if Brown stepped into his landing space. The next play IQ contests White at the rim, Boston get a late whistle, and Thibs challenges the call. Another 5 minutes to review the play (which was bullshit, IQ had a clean contest). We finally get a minute of real game time and then we get the KP/iHart scuffle which results in another 5 minute review. By this time, the crowd is completely out of it and the Garden is dead. The game went from extremely hyped to watching the refshow. I don’t understand what the replay center is for if the NBA doesn’t even utilize it. The MLB just implemented the pitch clock and it did wonders to the game. I don’t mind the second challenge rule but we have to find a way to review them faster. I also don’t need Ben Taylor to write a college essay explaining the call to the scorers table and the viewers at home what just happened. Killing the flow of a game to review plays for 5 minutes is hurting the product so much.
Refs were pretty terrible last night.
They were really bad. I’ve thought the NBA has had a ref crisis for a couple seasons but it doesn’t appear to have greatly improved. I think the flopping rule is going to be a shit show until they just give up on it. The Porzingis call was a flop but not THAT egregious and didn’t really impact anything, and then the Brunson flop call was an abomination considering he landed on someone’s foot.
Don’t know that the current caliber of refs need MORE judgment calls in their purview.
League told the refs they need to call a flop on each team, and they just got them over with together.