The New York Knicks scored at least 100 points in every game this season, until last Sunday they hosted one of the best teams in the NBA in the form of Cleveland. Precisely against Donovan Mitchell’s team, the Knicks scored 81 points en route to an 81:92 victory – the fewest points scored against them at Madison Square Garden since January 2021, when Cleveland also scored 81 points. When has New York’s opponent scored fewer hits? On November 14, 2016, when Dallas lost 93:77.
You can give the credit to Tom Thibodeau’s apprentices and you can also blame the Cubs’ offensive ability, but there is one statistic that explains well enough what is behind the low score. A figure that is not only related to players.
No less than 13 “steps” were whistled cumulatively to the Knicks and Cleveland, the most in an NBA game since March 2007. Last season, for comparison, 1.26 steps were whistled per game (the fewest since tracking began in 1996/97). In October, 1.7 steps were whistled per game and in November this number doubled, as a result of the tightening of the constitution this season.
“I’m not saying the referees got the whistles wrong, but I’ve never seen that kind of refereeing in the NBA,” Knicks forward Hennicks said. Julius Randle at the end Thibodeau He added: “The emphasis the league puts is generally good, but the referees must be consistent with all the teams.” Cubs coach JB Bickerstaff He said: “Honestly, that’s how every game should be judged, but that’s not what’s happening.”
Pay attention to the 13th whistle for steps, which prevented Mitchell from shrinking to 7 with less than a minute and a half to go. right decision? Incorrect? for your judgment. What is certain – much, much clearer steps are not whistled every night, and this is where our first problem begins.
This was the 13th travel called in Knicks vs. Cavs, a season high for the NBA. Don’t know how players are supposed to adjust to this drastic of a change in officiating. pic.twitter.com/bpa5IzlSLB
— Dean (@DeanJoannou) December 5, 2022
gravity
Welcome to a much grayer area – where it’s even harder for judges to be consistent – the pulls. At the beginning of November, the NBA sent an email to all the teams, in which it was clarified that from now on the referees will observe pulls and will not allow the players to get away with an illegal dribble. That is – players who tend to “pull” the ball (when their hand is under the ball) will have to pay more attention to this than usual, otherwise they will be whistled for a loss.
The first “victim” of the emphasis was Golden State guard Jordan Paul, who in the 116:109 loss to Miami recorded no less than three turnovers as a result of pulling (five turnovers in total). J. Morantwho himself tends to do a lot of pulling, came to Paul’s defense and tweeted: “Everybody does it.”
“I was shocked,” he said Steve Kerr. “The whole league has been doing it, since Allen Iverson convinced the refs that his dribble wasn’t a pull. Yeah, Jordan (Paul) pulls, but everybody does it. Draymond Green Join the discussion: “Every guard in the NBA pulls the ball. A lot. Including the best dribblers in the league. The emphasis is great, but let’s see it applied consistently.”
According to ESPN, in the month of November, 101 calls were whistled, compared to 110 all of last season. The direction is positive (or not? We’ll get to that right away), but as we said, there is no consistency, there are too many players who dribble against the constitution and the referees have a hard time eradicating the phenomenon and at the same time judging the league in an equal way.
everybody do it lol https://t.co/Txcqi4xCiT
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) November 2, 2022
“Pure basketball is destroyed”
A guy named Devin Williams, who uploads content about basketball online, has a Twitter page called “In the lab” where he exposes the stars and shows how they violate the constitution time and time again.
Williams claims in his videos that pure basketball has been destroyed and that it will never be the same. The goal: to open the eyes of referees and fans of the industry – and to show how often players in the NBA make illegal moves. “I won’t stop until we get 1950s basketball back,” he tweeted.
Ja Morant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic will not like the following three videos…
Morant has to be stopped.
Pure basketball has vanished from the earth and I’m snitching on everyone.
– the number 1 social media snitch ref pic.twitter.com/AaHdOuVhxw— IN THE LAB (@DevInTheLab) December 6, 2022
“Pure basketball” is ruined and it’ll never be the same.
Giannis is solely responsible
– #1 ranked social media ref snitch pic.twitter.com/swvGcGy1Iz— IN THE LAB (@DevInTheLab) December 1, 2022
Hey guys I’m Dev, and I’m the number 1 social media ref snitch troll. “Pure basketball” is ruined pic.twitter.com/2KcXG1m0G9
— IN THE LAB (@DevInTheLab) November 30, 2022
Where is the border?
At the beginning of the basketball industry, everything was simple. The movements and throws were “robotic” and if we compare the games in those days to those in the present – we will feel that this is a completely different sport. Today the talent is endless and the players (not just the stars), with the help of better personal trainers (who know more) than in the past, have developed sharp movements, mesmerizing dribbles and footwork that is mostly difficult to judge.
The NBA studied the issue and realized that if the referees do not emphasize the small details (from the pivot foot to the position of the palm in the dribble), many offensive players will simply be unstoppable. “We focused on helping the defensive players, we had to develop the game,” it was said. Remember, last season the referees stopped blowing fouls in favor of players who make contact with a shot during a move that is not a “basketball move”, which also greatly helped the attack and along the way improved the viewing experience.
The point is that as soon as James Harden or Luka Doncic, for example, throw themselves into their guard and then make a movement of “where is the foul?”, it is easy for the referees to make the right decision and therefore those moves are gone. But in the flow of the game, it’s much harder to notice borderline moves or a controversial move. And if everyone does it, as the players and coaches claim, what do we do? Is it really possible to whistle every time? And is it possible to identify the correct whistle every time? We have already said that it is a gray area.
In every game you can find many examples of similar moves, in which one step/pull was whistled and one time it was not. Like in the closing minutes between Golden State and Indiana this week, when rookie Andrew Nemhardt stole the show and beat Steph Curry.
Should this be called a carry now? pic.twitter.com/tMTy9FPCVB
— Dalton Johnson (@DaltonJ_Johnson) December 6, 2022
3 carries pic.twitter.com/1EGkXhGtVf
— L (@LENism) December 6, 2022
Okay, let’s make the unrealistic assumption that “pure basketball” will return, the referees will follow every whistle and whistle, and the pulls and small steps will be eliminated from our game. On his face – blessed. You just have to remember that these will be the consequences:
– The game will become much slower. The referees will be forced to stop endless attacks and a result like the one between New York and Cleveland will look standard. Take for example the offensive index in the NBA, which dropped from 112.0 in October to 111.3 in November following the same data we talked about earlier.
– Players will be less exciting with the ball. If we all go through all the dribbles and movements that made us jump out of our seats in recent years, and look at them in depth, we will find that quite a few of them had appeal. Or at least a legitimate claim to attraction. The players will have to adapt to the new judgment and the future generation will dribble completely differently.
– Impressive stats will be affected. Naturally – less freedom in the attack, fewer points, fewer shiny statistical lines that catch the eye and create headlines and stories.
Then the question arises – will this emphasis in the constitution harm the fun of the NBA? Everyone who loves sports wants to see fairness on the pitches, but at what cost? A clear line is needed here and it will be drawn by Adam Silver and his friends in the best league in the world. The ball is in their hands, now it remains to be seen what steps they will take.