Houston Rockets forward Tari Eason wasn’t pleased with the manner in which Deni Avdija dropped 41 points in the Rockets’ last-second loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
For those not in the know, Avdija does not draw his basketball powers from the life force of tropical equines. Rather, Eason was off-handedly referring to Avdija’s whistle, jokingly harkening back to the black-and-white referee jerseys of old.
However, the 24-year-old forward chose the wrong game to voice his displeasure.
Mere moments before Eason turned in an eventually-disallowed putback at the buzzer, the Rockets challenged a foul committed during the Blazers’ previous inbounds attempt. The Blazers ran their patented “*That’s all You can Come up With? Really?*” sideline-special, where a guard attempts to receive the ball on a post-up at the right wing, five feet from the inbounder.
For this rendition, the six-foot-two Caleb Love was set to receive the ball, maintaining post position against the six-foot-eight Eason. However, as Love attempted to corral Shaedon Sharpe’s (slightly dubious) delivery, Eason sprung with the dexterity of a zebra. In one motion, he simultaneously stripped the ball and sent Love hurtling toward the front row with a powerful forearm shiver. The referees initially called the play a foul. A player who flies six feet forward onto the floor doesn’t find himself there due to marginal contact. Right? The Rockets then challenged the call and Eason’s contact was deemed marginal. The “zebras” were certainly not playing favorites.
Avdija shot 15 free throws. Amen Thompson shot 11. For the game, Thompson (.688) had a higher free throw rate than Avdija (.625). Furthermore, from this writer’s view, every play in which Avdija drew free throws was a foul! Furthermore-furthermore, Avdija shot 5/7 from the field when defended by Eason. Furthest-more, Deni Avdija leads the league in drives.
NBA refereeing certainly needs work. A recent video by Ben Taylor of Thinking Basketball highlighted the undue favorability that officials grant to offenses. Avdija certainly takes advantage of this disparity, leveraging his body and low rip-throughs (with the occasional “Hey!”) to force the officials into making calls. This advantage, though, exists across all NBA teams. Avdija draws fouls at a rate expected of the guy leading the league in drives per game.
All of this is to say that Deni Avdija got the better of Tari Eason, zebras or not.
The Blazers host the Rockets again on Friday at 7 p.m. Pacific.