Do refs never call blocking fouls anymore? That's what Damian Lillard thinks.
Taking to Twitter, Lillard thinks NBA officials always call charges and never calls blocks anymore.
The NBA doesn’t call blocks anymore … everything is a charge
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) October 12, 2020
While charges are called much more often than blocks, there are still blocks called in the NBA. One thing that often determines what will be called on a 50-50 play is who the players are. If there is a star player either driving or making the charge attempt, they will often get the benefit of the doubt and get the call.
Damian Lillard, as a driver, maybe talking through personal experience, but he may also have a point. In the bubble, the prevalence of reviews as a result of a contested block-charge call skyrocketed. Reviews went up by about seven percent in the bubble as compared to the pre-hiatus portion of the 2019-2020 season. This, however, is not something the league has made the refs look more closely at. While it is not just a perception, it may be a situation of more things being reviewable, and thus more reviews being asked for.
When it comes to more charges being called than blocks now, this may also be impacted by reviews. On plays where it may look at normal speed that the defender doesn't get there in time, and thus it's called a block, a review may show that he did get to the spot in time and they change the call to a charge. Along those same lines, a play that may look to be in the restricted area could be shown to be outside of it upon review. These two factors are probably two factors that play into Lillard's perception that blocks aren't called anymore.
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