Dallas Mavericks: Why does it seem like the refs are out to get the Mavs?

Every NBA fan sees the bad calls that are made against their team and the Dallas Mavericks fans are no different. Still, doesn’t it seem like the Mavs are getting even more rough calls than usual over the last few games?

Why does it seem like the Dallas Mavericks are getting worked over by the refs over the past few games? The Mavs are not historically a team that has a lot of discipline issues or a ton of technicals in a season, but this year they’ve already been dinged with 16 techs on the season. Tonight was only the 22nd game.

There probably hasn’t been a more poorly reffed game this year than the one between the Mavs and Lakers just a few nights ago. Although I do not really believe the refs affected the outcome of the game, they made it nearly impossible to watch. Scott Foster has always been known to have thin skin when it comes to harsh words from players and that showed against J.J. Barea.

Ed Malloy showed that in the Portland game as well. So are the refs calling more techs than usual this season or are the Mavs not as disciplined with it? I think the answer is definitely leaning more towards the Mavs being more mouthy than usual. The team has been very chirpy this year, led by the energetic DeAndre Jordan at center and the passionate J.J. Barea.

The thing is, there is an underlying cause here that makes some of these technical fouls a little more understandable. The refs haven’t been significantly worse than they’ve been in the past in my opinion. There are still missed calls as there have always been both for and against the team you are rooting for. Guess what? That will never change.

The main issue I have with the reffing so far this year is there seems to be a lot of inconsistency. Something that is called regularly is being missed more often or things that they usually let slide are being called more strictly. Bad reffing is easy to overcome for these players who adapt well to their surrounding. Inconsistent reffing is much harder to get past.

In the end, this isn’t an exclusive issue that only the Mavericks are seeing. The reffing issues are league-wide as they always have been and always will be. Sometimes it is nice to be able to blame the refs for things that seem to be way off, but in the end the refs are not the ones causing wins or losses for any particular team.

The Mavs have been very vocal about their beliefs this season, causing many refs to award technical fouls to numerous different Mavericks players. That probably won’t change and maybe it’s a good thing that it won’t. I am enjoying the passion these Mavs are showing night in and night out.