Game in game out, every year

They would not be on the court at an NBA level. But some days shots are falling and some days they are not. A fraction of an inch and a ball can rim in or rim out. 46% shooters don’t shoot 46% every game. If you get them when they are shooting 50% you are unlucky, if you get them when they shoot 42% then you are lucky. Defense plays a role, but there was nothing more Hill could of done on a lot of those Ellis makes. Ellis was in the zone and that was lucky for the Warriors (assuming a win was good) and unlucky for the Pacers.

bq.What was so hard about making that call, though? How many refs are on the court…and all of them should be looking at 2 players, given that it was an isolation…seriously how can you miss that?

first of all, all of the refs should not be looking at the 2 players, they have plenty of other things to look at (e.g. other players fighting for position, defensive 3 in the key, offensive 3 in the key, illegal screens, etc.)

also, as someone else stated in another topic (sorry i forget which poster and in which topic), ref’s have certain things they look for when a play is going on. generally, kickballs take place on passes, so why would they be looking at the players’ feet when someone is dribbling? they’re much more worried about hand checks, reaching in, etc. it’s also difficult to determine without the slow motion replay whether hill kicked at the ball or if monta just dribbled it off hill’s foot. it’s pretty easy to see how they missed it.

and all of them should be looking at 2 players, given that it was an isolation…seriously how can you miss that?

No. That’s not how it works. Each ref has different responsibilities of what to watch depending on where he is on the court. If everyone’s watching the two players with the ball, who’s going to see the off ball moving screen or hold? I’ve never reffed in a 3 ref system, so I’m not exactly sure on each of their responsibilities, but I’d say the baseline guy was probably watching off the ball action, the near ref to the ball was probably responsible for that call. Guess what – mistakes happen. Sometimes you don’t have a good angle to see what happened, sometimes you just miss a call. I can tell you it’s a heck of a lot easier to think reffing is easy when you have replay/DVR to go back and watch what happened multiple times. In real time though? In real time, I missed the kick, too. For whatever reason, they missed it. It happens.