Game 3 Post-Game Podcast: Biyombo punks LeBron | Raptors Republic
William Lou flies solo on a Saturday to break down Game 3.
The Toronto Raptors took a decisive 99-84 victory in Game 3 to snap the Cleveland Cavaliers’ unbeaten run. William Lou geeks out about the win for an hour by himself.
tsn
Raptors come up with a finger-wagging answer for Cleveland: Arthur | Toronto Star
For so much of the year, and so much of his NBA career, Biyombo hasn’t been the kind of guy you could trust to catch the ball. Biyombo likes to describe his three-piece suit and hat fashion game as “presidential.” He could probably run for office in Toronto, if he was going to stay.
“I thought Biyombo gave them a great lift, with blocked shots and rebounds, and I think the crowd feeds off his energy,” Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue said. “He just had a great game . . . They were kicking our butts, so he should have the right to wag his finger.”
“I feel I got the licence from (Dikembe) Mutombo,” said Biyombo, who describes the Hall of Famer as a big brother.
And so, the Raptors are in the series. They got contributions from all over: 32 points from DeRozan on 24 shots, a combined 24 from reserves Cory Joseph and Patrick Patterson, both of whom had been slumping. Lowry still finished with 20 points, and his shooting slump vanished. The dumb locker room visit debate from Game 2, that’s gone now. Lowry put it to bed.
Cleveland missed shots — Irving and Kevin Love combined to go 4-for-28 — and Toronto made the most threes they have made in the playoffs, with 12. The Cavaliers hadn’t lost an Eastern Conference playoff game since May 8, 2015, against the Chicago Bulls. They are still in control of this series and this conference, but it’s time to update the ol’ resume.
“Everyone thought we were going to get swept, and that fuelled us,” Casey said.
Much of America was laughing at them after the first two games of this series. Internally, the Raptors wished they had injured centre Jonas Valanciunas, who warmed up for a few minutes before the game; internally, they knew they could play better, too.
Well, the officials were lousy, and LeBron flopped like a fish when he wasn’t flexing like a wrestler, and the Raptors made their stand. Biyombo can’t do this every game, and maybe the Raptors can’t, either. But to treat this thing as a failure, as a joke, was always to willfully engage in either amnesia or delusions. Losing to the Cavaliers wouldn’t be any shame, as long as the Raptors play like they can.
Dwane Casey and the Raptors Still Have Something to Prove | VICE Sports
The Raptors’ defensive sins, mostly absent in the first two series, have been a greatest hits collection of Casey’s early years in Toronto. The Raptors have sent the Cavaliers to the line 70 times through two games, compared to shooting 38 free throws for themselves. Surely, a fraction—a tiny fraction—of that is a product of star calls going Cleveland’s way. A lot of it is silly off-the-ball stuff. It is Patterson grabbing a jersey. It is Scola bumping Love 16 feet out with his back to the basket. It is not only the result of a wide talent gap, although it is mostly that; it is foolish stuff from players who should know better.
The rest of it is mostly just the Raptors not keeping their man in front of them. Even accounting for the fact that he is LeBron James, it is nearly impossible to make sense of the fact that James is shooting 18-for-26 in this series despite clanking every jumper that comes his way. He is getting to the rim at relative will, inexcusable for Carroll, unless the excuse is that his knee is still bothering him.
And then at point guard, we have seen a flashback to last year’s brief playoff run (stumble?). Just like he was supposed to play John Wall to a draw last year, Lowry was at least supposed to cancel out Kyrie Irving. Instead, Lowry is missing shots and buckling under Cleveland’s defensive pressuring, turning the ball over with frequency. And on the other end, Irving is simply roasting him.
“He’s our guy,” Casey told reporters after the game. “He’s one of the examples (of offensive slumps affecting defensive performance). He’s missed some great looks, and he’s taken some of those looks down to the defensive end. He is an impactful player, but he can’t let that (affect him). None of our guys can.”
The irony is that if the Raptors set out to limit the Cavaliers’ 3-point shooting, they have done just that. Cleveland is shooting 14-for-41 from deep so far against the Raptors, after connecting on 50.6 percent of its 152 attempts against the Hawks. In picking their poison, however, the Raptors have gone too far in the other direction.
It is hard to think of the adjustment Casey could make to help slow down James and his gunning teammates. More and more, this looks like the inevitable result of a massive talent gap, and addressing that is Masai Ujiri’s job in offseasons to come.
Injured Raptor Jonas Valanciunas spotted moving more comfortably | Toronto Sun
DeMarre Carroll saw the foul disparity in Games 1 and 2 and didn’t like it one bit. He conceded that Cleveland simply outfought a tired group of Raptors in the opener, which could help explain the 33-20 free-throw attempt edge for Cleveland, but he didn’t get the 37-18 edge in the next game at all. In fact, he was baffled by it.
When asked if the Raptors need to tone down the physicality a bit to stop getting whistled for so many fouls, Carroll said it was more a question of trying to figure out how the game is being called.
“That’s a difficult question because we’re trying to be physical, because Game 1, they were super-physical, so Game 2, we tried to be physical, but it was a different story. I guess you just have to differentiate how the refs call the game. If we can do that, we’ll be OK,” Carroll said earlier Saturday.
Well, there was no way of getting a feel for how the referees were calling this one, because they didn’t see to have a clue what they wanted to do themselves.
Which is why Carroll’s game plan probably made the most sense.
Give it your all, and hope it pays off.
“I think you should be aggressive and live with the results. If you’re passive, you’re asking yourself to lose, but if you go out there and be aggressive and physical and put the ownership on the refs, you just live with the results,” Carroll had said.
Cory Joseph keeps Raptors going when fouls slow Lowry | Toronto Star
In a series where the Raptors had been dominated, it was just the type of moment that they, and the fans, needed. Joseph was able to put his emotions aside and continued on in a night where his team desperately needed him.
“I thought Cory did a much better job of holding his position and holding his ground,” Casey said of his on-court work.
“He did a much better job tonight of controlling the game, running the offence, not letting the defence speed him up. I thought he did an excellent job with that.
“Kyle’s first charge, I’ve got to look at that again too,” said Casey, his focus clearly on the whistles blown and not blown, and the referees’ treatment of his team.
“I thought once Kyle got in foul trouble, (Joseph) did a good job of handling the pressure, their switching and making sure he had the right person involved in the pick and roll.”
Raptors’ Bismack Biyombo a one man wrecking crew | Toronto Sun
“You can always wave your finger when you’re winning,” said Tyronn Lue, the Cavaliers coach who now has one playoff defeat on his resume. “They were winning. They were kicking out butts. Until you do something about it.”
Biyombo did something about it all night long. Which makes you wonder about how great this victory was for the city, for the Raptors, for a team that has turned this playoff run into must-see TV. But at the same time, all of the NBA is watching Biyombo. They’re seeing what he’s capable of, they’re watching the price of the pending free agent go up by each passing playoff day.
Can the Raptors retain Biyombo beyond this series?
Can general manager Masai Ujiri find a way to be creative enough with its budget to keep Biyombo financially happy and keep him happy as he backs up or shares time with Jonas Valanciunas to give the Raptors a powerful 1-2 combination at centre?
Or is Ujiri going to have to do what he did last summer: Find an alternative. One thing nobody asked last summer — how did the Raptors steal Biyombo? That wasn’t a story. Now, with this series 2-1, with Biyombo a game changer at home — few players react to a crowd better than he does — the Raptors possibilities are endless and that is juxtaposed with the future of Toronto’s newest favourite sporting son.
This is what Toronto has always loved best. Effort. Intangibles. Fight. Emotion. A 6-foot-9 African version of Tie Domi.
“He was amazing man, 26 rebounds” said DeMar DeRozan, who scored an impressive 32 points himself. “Protecting the rim. Without him tonight, we probably wouldn’t get this win.”
Raptors strike back in Game 3 against Cavaliers | Toronto Star
The Raptors did make it difficult on themselves in the fourth quarter, going scoreless on nine straight possessions as Cleveland cut the deficit that had been as high as 18 in the first half to eight.
But a Kyle Lowry to Biyombo lob dunk — the centre’s first basket of the game after he’d played 34 minutes — restored some calm and Biyombo followed with two more buckets off great DeRozan passes for a 14-point Toronto lead with 3:38 left.
For DeRozan, the assists were just icing on a dominant night when he scored 32 points on 24 shots, shredding the defence of Cleveland’s J.R. Smith.
Lowry finished with 20 points and Cory Joseph had 14 off the bench for the Raptors, who shot a series-high 46 per cent and made 12 three-pointers..
The game played out just as coach Dwane Casey had wanted, the Raptors protected the paint and didn’t allow the Cavaliers to beat them from outside.
The Cavs had just 20 points in the paint — Biyombo had four blocked shots on the night — and the Cavs struggled from the floor, shooting just 35.4 per cent.
Cleveland was just 13-for-39 from three-point range, Kevin Love and Kyrie Iving were a combined 2-for-11 from three-point range and 4-for-28 overall.
LeBron James had 24 points and Smith 22 for the Cavs.
“They did a great job of going under screens and pick and rolls . . . collapsing and getting out to shooters,” said Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue. “I thought we got the shots we wanted, we didn’t make them.”
Raptors rebound for huge Game 3 victory over Cavaliers | Toronto Sun
Riding the hot shooting of DeMar DeRozan, who seemed to spend entire the evening torching J.R. Smith — who was earning rave reviews for his stellar defence in the first two games — and surviving some early foul trouble for Kyle Lowry, the Raptors finally played a Raptors-like game in a 99-84 win and now trail the best-of-seven series, 2-1.
DeRozan finished with 32 points, but it could have been much more had he gotten the kind of whistle some of the Cavs’ star players were getting in Cleveland.
And even with the win, the whistle was a large part of head coach Dwane Casey’s post-game media conference.
Casey was as critical of the officiating as he has been all year, demanding his team get the same calls the Cavaliers have been getting all series.
He did this knowing commissioner Adam Silver was in Toronto for the game.
What particularly galled the head coach was the fourth quarter, in which the Raptors got to the line just once (Casey actually thought they didn’t get there at all).
“There has to be some consistency,” Casey said reiterating his long-held belief that NBA officials have the toughest job in the sport. “How can you miss calls and fouls like that? I can’t see it. I’ve been in this league a long tie, in college basketball a long time, but again, there has to be some consistency. The same foul on one end has got to be the same foul on the other.”
Casey pointed to his record-setting rebounder Bismack Biyombo as a perfect example of a guy who is just not getting a fair whistle.
“I don’t know if he’s getting hit because of how physical and tough he is, but he’s getting cracked,” Casey said.
ACC crowd gives Raptors adrenalin shot in Game 3 win over Cavaliers | Sportsnet.ca
There’s no math equation, but this post-season the Raptors are 3-0 in elimination games – two Game 7s and Saturday night, which wasn’t officially one but was in the practical sense. The Raptors are still underdogs against the Cavaliers, but if Cleveland went up 3-0 the series was over.
“We get nights like this often now, and it’s fun,” said Kyle Lowry, who shook off some early foul trouble to finish with 20 points, including 4-of-8 triples after he started the series 1-of-15. “We need it. We want it. I don’t know if the fans know how much we appreciate it, but we really do appreciate it, and we want them to be as loud as they possibly can. I think it affects other teams, and it gives us just that energy. We know we make a big run or we make a big shot or Biz gets a block and he goes and does his little thing, they love it. We feed off that positive energy.”
Yeah, there’s no doubt. The Raptors had lost the opening two games of the series by 31 and 19 points – no team in NBA history opened a conference final losing both games by such massive margins. The Cavaliers were 10-0 so far in the playoffs and scoring with an efficiency that surpasses what the Golden State Warriors were doing during their 24-0 streak to start the season.
Clearly all the Raptors needed was the kind of adrenalin shot that home crowds at the Air Canada Centre are gaining a reputation for providing in amounts not seen since John Travolta was playing doctor in Pulp Fiction.
They got it. The Raptors’ win may have come out of nowhere but it started at home with the energy of a crowd that can change games and maybe even series.
Raptors alive and well, hand Cavaliers their first playoff loss this spring | Toronto Sun
James Jones nailed Patrick Patterson with what looked like a cheap shot in the dying seconds. Dahntay Jones caught Biyombo “in an area I probably wasn’t supposed to get hit in.”
The Cavs might have lost, but they sent a message that this war had only just gotten started.
“At the end of the day, it’s playoffs, teams are going to push and shove, they want to win the game, so at the end of the day, you’re going to have to fight,” Patterson said.
Patterson got hammered by a Kevin Love elbow in Game 1. Is he sensing a pattern?
“I have no idea. That’s the second time in three games, so, message, accident,” he said, before adding tellingly: “No apology (from Jones), so, who knows.”
Meanwhile, LeBron James was noticing business was picking up as well.
“I got hit with an elbow, I didn’t know it was my own teammate. I thought it was DeMarre,” James said of the weird first-half incident that saw Tristan Thompson catch him in the mouth, with a bit of help from Carroll.
“I was going to say something else to you, but I’ll leave it alone,” James said, unwilling to comment further.
Expect more fireworks and terse comments to come.
The Raptors live, and this series has finally begun.
Raptors’ playoff pressure eases with win over Cavaliers | Toronto Sun
Barring an injury to LeBron, the Raptors won’t win this series, but they’ve achieved validation and dispelled any notion that this series would be a sweep.
Their pride was on the line in Game 3 following two beatdowns in Cleveland when everyone was writing the Raptors off.
“I just know our guys are resilient,” said head coach Dwane Casey, who tried to bite his tongue when the subject of officiating was broached. “They’re playing through a lot, playing through a lot of physicality, getting hit and fouled.
“We shot zero free throws in the fourth quarter, zero. That’s frustrating, but our guys played through it, so that shows a sense of toughness, a sense of togetherness. People have written us off all year.”
Toronto did make one free throw in the fourth quarter, but the disparity in how the game was being officiated was one-sided in Cleveland’s favour.
Enjoy it, but don’t get it twisted. The Raptors aren’t going to beat the Cavaliers in the NBA’s Eastern Conference final.
They aren’t going to stop James for any length of time. But on Saturday – with a lot of help from James – they were able to embarrass him.
While the best player in the series was doing his very best to steal one from his opponents, the referees were doing their best to help out.
James got the close calls. The Raptors got none of them.
Afterward, Toronto coach Dwane Casey was in a controlled froth. Unprompted, he mentioned the disparity in fouls over and over again. He just happened to know the free-throw discrepancy during the first three games: “73 (for Cleveland) to 46 (for Toronto).”
“We shot zero free throws in the fourth quarter. Zero,” Casey said darkly. Then he said it again.
Casey understands there is no conspiracy against Toronto. There is only the bad habit of giving an all-star all-star-type calls. James is a rather large level above that. He gets LeBron calls. And he’s been getting plenty of them.
The best example of how it works the other way was a clear-as-clear-can-be Biyombo block on James that was called a foul. The mistake was so obvious, all Biyombo could do – again – was laugh.
But despite James’s crooked efforts and the referees’ willful blindness, Toronto managed to sneak one. They did it with the best adjustment of all – being better.
Cleveland is still the best team in this series. James is still the best player.
But on Saturday at least, the honour as well as the glory belonged to Toronto. That’s something to hold on to.
Quotable: Game 3 of Eastern Conference Finals | Hoops Addict
“Well, one thing is he’s getting fouled so much. He’s not getting the calls. We shoot zero free throws in the fourth quarter, zero. I mean, it is 73-46 in the entire three games. He’s getting hit. There’s one play where they almost have a brawl. He gets killed on that play. And again, I’ve got to go back and watch it, but there’s got to be some consistency. I said it before the game, we have the greatest officials in the league. But how you can miss fouls like that and calls like that, I can’t see it. I’ve been in this league a long time, in college basketball a long time, but again, there’s got to be consistency. The same foul on one end has got to be the same foul on the other. I don’t know if he’s getting hit because of how physical and tough he is, but he’s getting cracked. To his credit, I thought he was going to lose his head when he got the technical foul, but he kept playing.” -Dwane Casey on Bismack Biyombo
ECF Game 3: Raptors 99, Cavs 84 | Toronto Raptors
DEFENSIVE STAND TO SECURE THE WIN
The Raptors forced the Cavaliers into a 14-point fourth quarter, their lowest of the postseason, where they shot 31 percent from the floor. Bismack Biyombo was a presence in the paint, but got into the action on the offensive end of the floor as well, scoring six straight to help Toronto keep the game out of reach.
Raptors smother Cavs in 99-84 Game 3 win | Raptors HQ
With Joseph back in and regaining his first-round form, DeMar DeRozan turning what was probably his best half of the playoffs, and Bismack Biyombo grabbing more than a third of every available rebound, the Raptors’ didn’t just survive – they exploded. Somehow, the Raptors led 60-47 at half time with Lowry taking part in just 10 minutes.
For much of the third quarter, you could feel the Raptors teetering. Toronto adopted a new strategy for trying to slow down the Cavaliers after two games of being demolished on the interior. Rather than playing LeBron James one-on-one and staying home on shooters, the Raptors opted to send extra help LeBron’s way and dare him to rifle passes to open shooters on the perimeter. Because he’s LeBron James, he did just that – hurling dart after dart to his waiting teammates. Throughout most of the playoffs, the Cavs’ gunners have turned such opportunities into all-time three-point shooting records. On Saturday, they turned them into bricks.
On the other end, the Raptors took part in the fun, missing their own share of open looks created by gorgeous ball movement. DeRozan kept the offense breathing with a collection of drives that brought you back to the good old days of the regular season, but still, Cleveland was creeping … until:
The Raptors never let the euphoria of that Joseph quarter-closing buzzer beater peter out. A quick Patrick Patterson three followed by a Lowry driving layup put the Raptors up 15 to start the fourth, allowing 20,000 people to exhale. No one knew it at the time, but that Lowry basket to make it 85-70 would serve as the game-winner. Toronto’s locked-in defense (and a clank-a-thon on the part of the Cavs) held Cleveland to just 14 points in the final frame. Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving posted a collective shooting performance worse than anything Lowry and DeRozan have teamed up for in the playoffs — 4-of-28 from the field and 2-of-11 from three. Their struggles crippled Cleveland’s otherwise flowing offense. Love didn’t even touch the floor in the final 12 minutes.
Final Score: Cavs fall 99-84 in Toronto, lose first game of playoffs | Fear The Sword
After a dominant pair of wins in Cleveland, the Raptors responded in kind in Game 3. The biggest adjustment may have been Biyombo, who had 26 rebounds to go with seven points and four blocks. Biyombo had just nine boards in the first two games. DeMar Derozan and Cory Joseph led an effective attack for the Raptors, 32 and 14 points respectively. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers struggled to score in the paint, outscore 36-20, with just three completions in the first half, all from James. Irving was 3-of-12 and Kevin Love 0-of-4 on attempts before the half, while the Raptors shot 45.8% from the field for the night. The Raptors led by 13 at the half, 60-47, and withstood a few runs from the Cavaliers in the second half to win 99-84.
Fast start for Raptors
The Raptors outscored the Cavaliers, 27-24 in the opening quarter. It was the first time they had a lead in any quarter this series. It was about baby steps, and they took a couple more steps on this night.
“We know we’re going to face a better team for sure,” the Cavs’ LeBron James said before the game.
Toronto’s Kyle Lowry, who had it going offensively initially, picked up his third foul early in the second quarter and had to take a seat. But his team had his back. The Raptors for the first time in this series showed some fight, and did it on the defensive end.
Biyombo did a phenomenal job protecting the paint. On one possession in the quarter Irving drove past his defender and it looked like he had clear baseline path to the basket, but Biyombo collapsed on him and swatted his shot.
Biyombo then did the Dikembe Mutombo finger wave. Defensive stops led to transition scores and ultimately resulted in an 18-point advantage. Cleveland was held to 37 percent shooting in the first half, and DeMar DeRozan anchored the Raptors’ offense by scoring 21 of his 34 points in the first two quarters.
Toronto went on a 22-10 run with Lowry on the bench in foul trouble and had a 60-47 lead at the break. Biyombo pulled down 16 rebounds at that point. But just before the half ended, things got a little chippy.
They pulled within seven in the second half, but ultimately led for less than a minute the entire night in a game the Raptors dominated at home. It was the first time the Cavs were held under 100 points in this postseason.
Biyombo’s physical play and brash talk has caused a couple of confrontations in this series and caused two more Friday. He went nose-to-nose with Tristan Thompson in the first half, prompting Cory Joseph, Thompson’s childhood friend, to step in.Thompson pushed him away, then swung his arm wildly leaving the skirmish. It caught James in the jaw and dropped him to the ground — although James’ acting skills on the play looked admirable. Regardless, it was the Cavs’ best shot of the night that really connected — and of course, it was friendly fire.
Biyombo was whistled for a flagrant late in the game when he collared James around the neck with his left arm and hit him on the side of the head with his right. James has complained multiple times in this postseason he is being officiated unfairly and that time got the call.
It mattered little. James made both free throws to trim the deficit to 91-79 with 3:20 left, but Irving missed a 3-pointer with a chance to cut the deficit to single digits. The Raptors sailed in the final few minutes.
Raptors overcome odds, officials in upset | TSN
Kyle Lowry’s three early fouls, which relegated him to the bench for most of the first half, included a block that should have been called a charge on Kyrie Irving and a shove in the back embellished by the much stronger LeBron James. The half ended with a skirmish that saw James hit by an inadvertent elbow from teammate Tristan Thompson, causing him to drop like a sack of potatoes thinking the contact was courtesy of DeMarre Carroll, who was originally assigned a technical foul, later rescinded.
Bismack Biyombo’s block on James, which replays proved to be clean, was called a foul. Later, his takedown of the King – a hard foul – was ruled a flagrant.
The Cavaliers are good enough, James is good enough, that they should be able to win this series handily without the help of external forces. Of course, Cleveland did not win either of the first two games because of the officiating – they won because they were the better team – and, despite their best efforts, the referees didn’t alter the result of Game 3. That said, through 144 minutes of basketball in this series, one the Raptors are not supposed to win, the officials have made themselves a story.Casey, a coach who generally watches what he says about the league’s officials – and what he doesn’t say – very closely, took the onus on himself after the game, standing up for his team and sending a message to the NBA. The Raptors, like the rest of us, have noticed.
“I said it before the game, we have the greatest officials in the league,” said Casey. “But how you can miss fouls like that and calls like that, I can’t see it. I’ve been in this league a long time, in college basketball a long time, but again, there’s got to be consistency. The same foul on one end has got to be the same foul on the other.”
Toronto Raptors execute with backs against wall, blowout Cavs | Raptors Cage
Offence: A
Overall, the Raptors took high-percentage shots and moved the ball significantly more than they did in the previous two games. As stated before, DeRozan played his heart out in front of the home crowd. DeRozan managed to earn trips to charity stripe where he shot 8-9. He would end the night with 32 points.
Kyle Lowry started the game hot but quickly got into foul trouble. When he did return, he played like it was the regular season: driving hard to the basket and actually making threes. He ended the night with 20 points (7-13 shooting), six rebounds and three assists.
When Lowry came out, Cory Joseph locked in. Joseph failed to make a significant impact in the first two games of the series, but tonight he played like Popovich was watching. He ended the night scoring 14 points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing out three assists.
Toronto Raptors: We’re Still Here | The Runner Sports
Unfortunately, the whistle was still decidedly in Cleveland’s favor. There were two calls, a blocking call and a phantom push in the back, that kept Lowry in foul trouble for almost all of the first half. The Toronto Raptors lost the foul battle again this game, 17-10. Still better than the 31-16 in Game 2. Adding to the 25-20 in Game 1, that puts the Raptors down 73-46 in foul calls after 3 games. It’s not just the fact that there’s a foul disparity, because style can influence that. The problem is the quality of the calls have not been consistent. The same situation is not being called the same way for both teams.
The perfect example of the ref’s disposition to give the benefit to the Cavaliers was during the skirmish in Game 3 when Tristan Thompson accidentally hit LeBron James. The ref didn’t see this happen, but he saw LeBron flop and immediately called a technical on DeMarre Carroll. Luckily it was a situation that could be reviewed and overturned, but it was a decidedly biased moment. I’m not saying it’s intentional, but they need to be aware that they are definitely calling the game differently for both teams and need to be conscious of making fair calls for both sides. That’s all we should be able to ask and expect of professional officials.
“I Come Not To Bury LeFlop James But To Praise Him!” | Gruxi
Whether or not you agree with the widely-held theory that NBA superstars get more generous calls, the fact of the matter is that Lebron and Wade, fast friends off-the-court, have mastered the art of selling fouls. Just the right amount of pageantry. Sure, it looks shameful when the fakery is exposed on slow-motion replay, but who cares: an effective flop leads to points, which leads to more wins, and isn’t that the goal? Shouldn’t we be nodding with approval at their proficiency in goading a few more favorable calls out of the officials, reputation-be-damned? After all, it’s what we seem to do in other sports. Consider the practice of catcher framing in baseball, whereby catchers have learned to receive pitches that are out of the strike zone in a way that gets them called as strikes by the umpire. Now this practice isn’t new: catchers have been doing it for decades. What IS new, though, is that the great Data Analytics revolution has allowed us to actually measure how good a catcher is at framing, and some of them are consistently much better (and worse) than others. The stat geeks take it even further, estimating how many additional wins a catcher produces for his team with good framing technique. But let’s do away that fancy term and call framing what it really is: trying to fool the home plate umpire into making a bad call. Some catchers are celebrated for their ability to induce bad calls. Multi-million dollar contracts are awarded based on their ability to consistently do so. Now, computerized ball-and-strike calls may eventually make catcher framing a thing of the past, but as things currently stand the name of the game is trying your very best to fool the human umpire, and baseball fans can do nothing but stew with a grudging respect when the opposing catcher steals a few extra strikes.
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