One of the most nightmarish and embarrassing losses in recent memory for second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls arrived on the night of Nov. 24. Donovan and the Bulls pushed their losing skid to two games this week after falling short to the lowly and previous one-win Houston Rockets on the road at the Toyota Center.
The Bulls fell short to the Rockets by the final score of 118-113. Houston dominated Chicago in the third quarter, to the tune of an edge of 17 points. The Bulls couldn’t recover in the fourth quarter to re-take the lead and beat the Rockets.
And there was one particular play that caught the eye of Bulls’ fans that were watching this embarrassing loss play out against the Rockets in the fourth quarter. When the Bulls were starting to catch some momentum in the fourth quarter, point guard Lonzo Ball hit a key three-pointer that brought them within two points of the Rockets.
If Lonzo was able to hit his sixth three-pointer of the game, that would’ve brought the score to 99-97 and given the Bulls an undeniable streak of building momentum.
Yet, the umpire would call Lonzo for a foul that somehow canceled out the basket and gave possession to the Rockets. The refs would even review the call to ensure that it was valid and held up.
The refs essentially called the foul on Lonzo for initiating contact with the opposing defender, Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr., which is why they apparently canceled out the made basket.
In his postgame press conference, Donovan was validly confused about the call and the subsequent explanation that he got from the refs. According to a piece from Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago following this loss to the Rockets on Nov. 24, Donovan thought that the “call made zero sense”.
Here’s more on what Donovan had to say regarding this foul call on Lonzo in the fourth quarter against the Rockets.
"“Now, I’m not saying it made zero sense to me because I don’t agree with what they said. The way they explained it to me, and what I was able to see (on the in-arena cameras), did not make sense. So if I can get a different camera view, I can maybe understand what they’re talking about.“But it seemed so far-fetched about what they were telling me, it just didn’t make sense to me. And I’m not sitting there saying they were wrong on it, they’re obviously looking at it and reviewing it. But I really don’t know how you make a call like that based on what I saw.”"
This was probably the most maddening foul call of the season to date for the Bulls. And it was one of a few key notable foul calls from the NBA refs around the league on the night of Nov. 24 that drew criticism from the media and fans alike.
Billy Donovan and Chicago Bulls are the latest victim from inept NBA reffing on this terrible Lonzo Ball foul call
If you watch this play, Lonzo doesn’t actually initiate any contact with KPJ. Any contact that actually happened between KPJ and Lonzo was caused by the closeout from the Rockets guard.
It really seems like the ref just saw KPJ fall over Lonzo after the basket was made and assumed that the Bulls’ point guard initiated contact on the shot. But it is clear on the video that nothing of the sort happened.
one of the worst take fouls you’ll see this season. Cavs are in the middle of a big run and the ref stops the play to rule THIS an away from the ball foul on JaVale McGee. Osman’s 3 taken off board, Cavs ball side out. this STINKS @NBA. pic.twitter.com/fcnLGRW0C0
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) November 25, 2021
There was another very impactful foul call that just seemed to not be too relevant to what was happening in-game at the time between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Phoenix Suns in the fourth quarter on Nov. 24. The Cavs had a key three-pointer taken off the board because there was a foul away from the play by Suns’ big man JaVale McGee.
While it is valid to make the point that the foul on McGee was real and is more based on a flaw in the NBA rulebook instead of a very blatant mistake from the refs themselves, it all traces back to the same frustration.
It seems like it is becoming more and more evident that bad reffing is having a very real impact on the final outcome of games. I’m not ever saying that it is easy to be a ref, but this is just lame that a call like the one on Lonzo holds up after review.
Video review is intended to prevent calls like this from holding up. But all it did was serve as an opportunity for the lead ref to keep from hanging someone on his crew out to dry by calling out how bad of a foul it really was.
I completely agree with Donovan here about the call not making any sense, and the subsequent explanation only making things worse. And while the ref should be fined or punished or something here, it is more likely that Donovan will get fined for these comments about the call. NBA reffing is frustrating and it feels like we go through this same process multiple times each season where nothing will change.