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Good to see Howard is following in Ronnie's footsteps, whining about everything...including the officials. Perhaps, he should focus more on coaching his team and less on begging for a few calls?

Officials are bound to know this, and I've often wondered it they use this to provide tacit benefit to one team or the other, while keeping foul totals close. It's one of the great misconceptions of basketball that foul counts need to be close or else the officials aren't calling it "fairly" (I admit falling into this trap even though I know better). There have been MANY GAMES in which I feel like we got hosed by officials, and hardly got to the line, but when I look at foul totals they're very close. I can at least understand why their coach might feel the way he does. Without seeing the game, I have to think the second part of Jason's comment is the real answer. Officials LOVE to call fouls on shots under the basket, and the team that is more aggressive under the hoop will generally draw more fouls. Then the refs try to even things up by calling fouls against the other teams away from the ball or away from the basket.

I would say that all teams will hvae shortfalls. Look at the Kansas Jayhawks mens basketball team. They seem to always lose 1 or two games a year that they shouldn't at all lose. It is hard for any team to get up and 100% prepared for 30+ games each year! I do not think that bad mouthing the coaches or players is going to help the situation at all.. This is the time that they need your support more than ever!