Whiteside says officiating has turned series into 'flop-offs'
On a night the pain in his right thigh robbed him of explosion,
Miami Heat center
Hassan Whiteside took pride in still being able to stand up to the challenge. His only wish was the
Charlotte Hornets would have done the same.
"I don't know man, it's looking like the flop-offs to me," Whiteside said after foul trouble in Monday night's 89-85 loss at Time Warner Cable Arena dropped the Heat into a 2-2 tie in this best-of-seven opening-round NBA playoff series. "The refs just got to watch for people flopping."
Whiteside said between Hornets guard
Jeremy Lin flailing his arms to draw fouls and Charlotte center
Cody Zeller toppling at the slightest of contact, the whistles in the series have his ears buzzing.
"
I don’t know, man. I really don't," he said. "I don't even have an answer for it. I don't know."
Whiteside said he will speak to the officials before Wednesday's Game 5 to get an idea on what needs to be done to limit the fouls.
“I just have to play the best defense, " he said. "I can just talk to them and ask them."
While Monday's foul trouble was the exception for Whiteside, it has become rule for Dragic in his battles with Hornets guards
Kemba Walker and Lin.
"In playoff games, when every possession matters, you're fighting thought screens, you're doing so much stuff that sometimes it feels like they give us those penalties, but on the other side it's nothing," Dragic said. "It's tough."
On the eve of the series, an extensive piece in The New York Times chronicled a viral video, titled "Jeremy Lin: Too Flagrant Not to Call," detailing a perceived lack of respect when it comes to foul calls for Lin.
Heat guard left the game and the bench during the third and fourth quarters
Since then, Lin has taken at least six free throws in three of the series first four games, including shooting 8 of 9 from the line in Monday's Game 4. For his part, Dragic has done so only once, including no free throws in Game 4.
"I didn't read it," Dragic said, acknowledging he was aware of both the article and the YouTube video of the perceived officiating injustices against Lin. "But the whole series is like this for me.
"I don't know what to say."
On April 15, two days before the start of this series, the NBA released a statement that said, "After reviewing our extensive officiating database, we have found no data that suggests Jeremy Lin is disadvantaged by our officiating staff."
The Heat certainly believe that is the case in this series.
"We tried to do everything possible as far as just trying to keep him in front and guys going straight up and trying not to foul," Heat forward
Joe Johnson said.
The Heat also accepted that they have to do a better job.
"We just kept fouling, those guys kept getting to the line," Johnson said after the Heat were outscored 25-14 on free throws in Game 4.
For Whiteside, the hope is to be more agile in Wednesday's 8 p.m. Game 5 at AmericanAirlines Arena after being limited in Game 4 by the thigh bruise sustained in Game 3.
"It bothered me, but there's nothing I could do about it, so I just played through the pain," he said. "I couldn't explode on it like I normally can."
And when he tried to explode, he found himself fighting through more than what he thought should have resulted in only five free throws.
"I just tried to score the best of my abilities when I got the ball down there," he said. "I know they're going to grab me and pull on my arms and stuff, just try to finish."
The goal now is to get their own fouls down.
"We've probably fouled more in these four games than we have in the last four weeks," coach Spoelstra said. "But you have to give them credit. They're aggressive."
Spoelstra said there are no plans to play less physical on defense Wednesday.
“We want to be a physical team. We don’t want repeated drives at the rim. We’re fouling quite a bit but we’re telling our guys to be aggressive on the other end as well … We will put pressure on them as well."
stay on their necks ... i said in your season thread i was root in fo y'all in this series .. i kant believe y'all have evened it up without batum 
.. but clifford and lin and kemba stepped up .. y'all deserve this 
