Golden State Warriors: Officiating better, but not good in Game 2

The officiating in Game 2 of the Golden State Warriors matchup with the Houston Rockets was better than in Game 1, but that isn’t saying much.

The referees have stolen the show during this marquee matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets. Despite a total of three MVP winners competing in this series, the officials have been the centerpiece of all conversations.

While the showdown between these two teams has been very entertaining, the officiating has been so controversial that the performance of the players has been largely overlooked. This is for a valid reason.

In Game 1, a number of wild plays went uncalled. James Harden and Chris Paul were both very frustrated with the referees as seemingly no call went their way. In contrast, the Warriors argued that the officials were allowing a ton of body contact to go uncalled both ways and the Rockets were simply complaining.

Sadly, this problem only grew worse after Game 2. This time, it looked as if the Warriors were the ones being unfairly judged by the referees. The most notable instance of this was when Kevin Durant cleanly blocked a dunk attempt by Clint Capela which was unfortunately called a shooting foul.

Another example of poor officiating was when both Draymond Green and NeNe Hilario received technical fouls for a brief altercation. These technical’s were given way too quickly and even the announcer, Reggie Miller, noted that he believes the league will rescind the techs because they were so unjust.

As this series goes on, all we can hope is that the officiating takes a backseat to the performances of these star players. Kevin Durant has been incredible ever since his poor Game 2 against the Los Angeles Clippers and it is sad that he is not getting the credit he deserves for his run.