Home > Ball out of bounds call, Dallas Mavericks, Missed travels, Oklahoma City Thunder, Shooting foul, Technical foul, Ticky-tack fouls, Traveling > Thunder @ Mavericks (Game 1): Select calls from the 1st half, including whistle-happy Joe Crawford

Thunder @ Mavericks (Game 1): Select calls from the 1st half, including whistle-happy Joe Crawford

May 18th, 2011 Leave a comment Go to comments

There were so many questionable calls and no-calls from last night’s game between Oklahoma City and Dallas, we’ve decided to break up our analysis into two separate videos. A video from second half action will be coming out later today.

In this video, you’ll get a glimpse why referee Joe Crawford (#55) is considered so “whistle happy,” calling ticky-tack fouls on negligible contact.

Here’s a breakdown of the clips in the video above:

  • Ref Zach Zarba (#33) calls questionable double technical fouls on Tyson Chandler and Kendrick Perkins for fairly minor extracurricular activity.
  • Ref Joe Crawford arguably misses a travel on Dirk Nowitzki (which we describe in detail happens with other players on this blog post here and here).
  • Ref Zach Zarba misses a shooting foul from Dirk Nowitzki on Russell Westbrook.
  • Ref Bill Kennedy calls a terrible shooting foul on Jason Terry involving Kevin Durant.
  • Ref Bill Kennedy gets wrong an out-of-bounds call involving Jason Terry, but to Kennedy’s credit, he was shielded from the play, and he did check with another ref to see if he had a better angle on it, which he didn’t.
  • Ref Joe Crawford calls a ticky-tack foul on Jason Terry
  • Ref Joe Crawford calls a questionable foul (looks like he was wrong) on Tyson Chandler when another ref who had a better angle on the play didn’t call anything.
Categories: Ball out of bounds call, Dallas Mavericks, Missed travels, Oklahoma City Thunder, Shooting foul, Technical foul, Ticky-tack fouls, Traveling Tags: , , , , , , , ,
  • j0Shi

    I have to disagree here. Sure most of the calls were at least questionable (in most cases even wrong) but the Refs made it clear pretty early that they won’t allow any physical play on the stars on both ends on the floor. Bad officiating or not, it’s up to the players to adjust to that. Plus they remained true to that throughout the game.

    • guest

      There was nothing “TRUE” about it. they called whatever they felt all over the floor. The TV announcers were even complaining. You dont foul a guy out for getting a rebound. you dont give a guy his third for forcing some air by durant. IT was crappy all night and the better team did rise above. Seriously - badly called game!

    • RefCalls-TopFlops staff

      Was it stated that before the game that the refs wouldn’t allow any physical play on the stars?  Do you have a link to that story?  The way both players reacted, they didn’t get that memo.  Technicals are typically called when things have already gotten heated throughout the course of the game.  We believe handing them out in the first minute of the game for meaningless contact like this one was irresponsible, putting these two players at risk of getting ejected for a more meaningful technical later in the game.

      • JumboJet

        Since when do ref’s make statements before games to the media?  How do you know they didn’t go over to both benches before the game to warn them no funny business? 

        • RefCalls-TopFlops staff

          jOshi wrote, “the Refs made it clear pretty early that they won’t allow any physical play on the stars on both ends on the floor” Our follow-up question to that was basically, ‘How do you know?”  Kind of a reckless statement on j0shi’s part.  j0shi needs to prove such a statement was made before claiming it was made.

      • j0Shi

        Dunno what you were thinking after the quick techs but my initial reaction was like “ok … that’s the tone for the game … no contact plz”
        I didn’t like it but it was pretty clear to me. Most of the “ticky-tacks” you were arguing in that second video of the game were due to the fact that Oklahoma was unable to adjust to the officials.

  • guest

    It was a good win. But seemed funny that two “difference makers” Chandler and Terry were being called for ticky-tack or flat out good defense Just to get them off the floor. Not to mention the rebound Marion fouled out on… These refs just cant help themselves. Surprised J.J. didn’t start getting bad calls on him.

  • Ayn Rand

    The horrible rebound foul call on Marion could have changed the course of the entire game. Fouled out Marion, gave ball to OKC when it should have been Dallas ball with a tight score

  • Roethlishotdog

    On the last play officiating mechanics would permit that call to be Crawford’s, as on dribble penetration the referee responsible for where the dribbling action first occurs stays with the play through its entirety.  This particularly applies to the one-on-one defender; the baseline ref would be primarily responsible for any defenderrotating over.  So, even though the call was on the rotating defender, Crawford would still be able to make the call 

    • RefCalls-TopFlops staff

       We don’t have a problem with any ref making a call if they had a better angle on the play, but at minimum one would have expected another ref who is closer to raise their arm and blow their whistle at the same time.  That happens alot, but Kennedy wasn’t even close to calling a foul.  Makes you think that Crawford was perpetuating much of what we have seen from him in this game and many games before — calling ticky-tack fouls when no foul actually occurred.