Tough loss... I am the antithesis of a Hurley toadie, but with a tightly played game it is inconceivable that one team gets 28FT to 9FT? Having said that, not a bad time to lose. You want your ass kicked at the playground in the first half of the year,...
Six of them were on purpose in the final minute - and the tech. Still a discrepancy of 20-9 if you take those away, but not quite as pronounced.
There were some calls that bugged me. Tie game late, a soft offensive foul on Hawkins followed immediately by Fremantle creaming AJ with an illegal screen that led to their go-ahead basket, followed by the soft foul on Newton that led to the tech. Right before that Hawkins got the three free throws when he kicked his leg out (first one was a legit foul - second one was a bad call I thought). That might have been the only call we got all night but it was three foul shots down by six so it was a good time to get it.
The offensive foul on Newton in the first half (Kunkel flop) was perfectly awful - and the sideline ref behind the play was in absolutely no position to make that call. Should be a textbook example in ref school on why you don’t make calls when you aren’t in proper position.
There were also a couple instances - more annoying than something to argue - when they finally called a foul on X and it took away an advantage. Clingan had a dunk coming, but they called a foul on the entry pass. Diarra also had his man beat in the first half and we had to come back out and reset. Drives me nuts as a fan (“oh, NOW you blow your whistle) - but it’s not like officials are so diabolical that they are anticipating what‘s about to happen and take it away.