That's the NBA's problem in a nutshell and it irritates me to no end. When the call was made, I wasn't upset that they called it then; I was upset that they rarely call it any other time. Shaquille O'Neal has made a living out of offensive and defensive 3 second non-calls. That and the constant traveling (LBJ).
it's god awful...it's the albatross for coaches, players and fans across the board...
If an umpire is allowing a pitcher to paint the corners of the strikezone, hitters can recognize that and adjust to it(as can the pitchers). If that particular umpire's strikezone is shifted a bit inside on right handed hitters, players can adjust to that as long as it's consistent in how it's being called for the entire game.
My problem with the reffing isn't that it's bad, or that it's different from ref to ref. Players can make adjustments based off how a game is being called early. If the officiating crew is calling the game close, and is calling touch fouls, players can adjust and be careful to avoid contact. If the officials are letting physical play go on early in the game, players can buckle down and play more physical. That's fine. I, as a fan, have no problem with either of those scenarios as long as it's consistent from the start of the game to the end, and is consistent on both ends of the floor.
What bothers me as a viewer is when the game isn't being called consistently. There should never be a moment where a ref seems to decide arbitrarily that it's time to start calling those fouls in the paint(or that it's time to decide to stop calling them, as the case may be). If in the eyes of the officials there wasn't enough contact on a play in the first 5 minutes of the game to warrant a foul call, then that same amount of contact shouldn't be a foul at any other point in the game either. For the same reason, if it was enough contact to be a foul 5 minutes into the game, it should always be a foul, regardless of what point of the game it is...
and this has nothing to do with yesterday's Cavs/Magic game, I'm not even complaining about that game, they let a lot of stuff fly for the bulk minutes in that one...it's every NBA game I watch, I watch a good 15 games a week or more (depending on ho many Orlando games there are) and it just baffles me...no wonder why the Tim Donaghy thing was so easy to pull off....