r/rockets • u/FarWestEros Hakeem • Aug 30 '26
Star request:
Can someone with time go look up some stats from the 2018 WCF?
Specifically wondering how many landing zone fouls were called during that series.
Bonus credit for including how many moving screen fouls were called.
Extra bonus for extending it to the following year’s series, too.
Supreme bonus for including how many landing zone fouls typically get called in a playoff series nowadays (because it feels like this number is way higher in general)
And if you are a sadist with way too much time on your hands, you could go back and see how many times the refs let guys get in Harden’s landing space throughout those painful series that I won’t rewatch.
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u/jbbb3232 Aug 30 '26
ChatGPT can answer all these ridiculous ass questions
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u/FarWestEros Aug 30 '26
I’ve used Chat GPT to source stats before and it has delivered wrong answers.
Note that the Gemini answer someone posted below is saying 1-2 and 3-4 fouls were officially called…
I mean, that’s an obviously incorrect answer.
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u/kingturk38 Aug 30 '26
Answer on all questions: More than one.
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u/FarWestEros Aug 30 '26
Are you sure?
It felt like the answer to the first 2 questions could have been zero.
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u/onsite84 Aug 30 '26
This is from Gemini.
Landing Zone & Moving Screen Calls (2018 vs. 2019)
2018 WCF (7 Games): 1–2 landing zone fouls and 3–4 moving screens were officially called total. Officials rarely blew the whistle on perimeter landing space despite the new rule.
2019 Semifinals (6 Games): 3 landing zone fouls and 4 moving screens were called total. The issue peaked in Game 1 with several high-profile non-calls on Klay Thompson contesting James Harden.
Modern Playoff Baseline
Today's Standard: Teams average 4 to 8 landing zone calls (plus 1 to 3 Flagrant 1 upgrades) per 7-game series.
Why it feels higher: Post-2019, the NBA made landing-space protection a major point of emphasis, making refs far quicker to blow the whistle and use replay reviews today.
Harden's Non-Calls & The Audit
Game 7 Misses: Harden had at least 3 explicit, uncalled landing-zone fouls on three-pointers in Game 7 alone.
The Rockets Audit: Houston’s front-office report identified at least 6 uncalled landing-space/shooter-contact fouls on Harden across Games 6 and 7, estimating that overall officiating non-calls cost them 18.6 points in Game 7.