The drama surrounding the Warriors-Rockets playoffs match

The ongoing Western Conference Semifinal match between the Houston Rockets and the defending champ Golden State Warriors is being dictated more by the officiating that it should, says sports enthusiast James DeVellis. On the eve of the second game, the Rockets issued a statement on their audited tape of 2018’s battle with the Warriors, claiming that the officials had made 81 missed calls.

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Game One already featured a variety of non-calls and hotly debated ones, with the NBA saying
afterward that there were two missed calls on Warriors star Steph Curry in the last two minutes, and with the final possession in which the Rockets’ James Harden had thought he had been fouled being a correct non-call. That game had also seen Chris Paul getting thrown out.

Harden has made public announcements that his Rockets team is not getting its fair share of calls. And in past games, Harden and Paul called out veteran referee Scott Foster as someone who should not even be allowed by the league to officiate Rockets games. Ironically, it is Scott Foster refereeing the second game of the Warriors-Rockets match.

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NBA fans lament these developments, as games should be placed in the hands of the players, not the officials. After all, this match is already seen by many as a preview of who gets to the NBA Finals.

Then again, it could all just be in the mind. Both Golden State and Houston are clearly being affected by the officiating, preventing them from fully focusing on their games. Let’s hope the bad blood both teams have been harboring get more directed to each other instead, offers James DeVellis.

James DeVellis is a sports business major from Arizona. A voracious reader, the twenty-something student hopes to become a writer someday. To bring his two interests together, he is doing blogs and discussing the latest happenings in sports. For related posts, visit this blog.