Paul George is anything but happy with the referees after the Clippers were denied some calls in recent games. The Angelenos team lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 105-89 on Wednesday night, with Luka Doncic dropping 42 points on the Clips.
After the match was over, PG showed his discomfort with the officials, claiming that his team isn’t a flopping one but a physical one. They don’t try to trick referees as others do and it’s unfair that they don’t get the calls. He was very unhappy about it and blamed the refs for the Clippers’ 16-point loss against the Mavericks.
“We’re putting a lot of pressure at the rim. It’s insane that we’re not getting these calls. But it is what it is. It’s nothing new to me. Hopefully, we’ll send a bunch of clips in. League’s gotta take a look at this. Can’t go too much further than that — it’s a bunch of lies. They know what’s going on,” PG said, via ESPN.
According to Second Spectrum, the Clippers average 6.6 shots per game in the paint that lead to a foul. That is the fourth-fewest in the NBA this season, behind only the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns.
Although they are one of the best teams in the Western Conference, it doesn’t seem like they get the same treatment other teams could get. When you’re a star, refs tend to protect you more than other players but that’s just not the case with PG13. That’s why he went further and said the Clippers would have to play a flopping game to see if that changes something with the officials.
“We play physical, no different than any other player in this league, you know?” George said. “There’s nothing more that we can do. We’re attacking, we’re putting pressure at the rim, again. There’s nothing that I feel — unless we just start diving and playing a flopping game — there’s really nothing much that we can do.”
This season, referees have been very criticized for calling fouls that nobody but them see. Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young and Luka Doncic have been mastering this ‘art’ and they have fallen for all of it. On Sunday, they were under fire again after a controversial play in the last seconds of the Brooklyn Nets-New York Knicks game.
George isn’t the first one to express his frustration with the officiating of games and he probably won’t be the last. Some things need to be addressed by the league if they want to favor the entertainment and this is one of the top priorities.
