by SSReporters, Stupid Sideline Reporters
Hey everybody, it's my first post here, glad to join the Carnival.
A reallllly slow sports day however abruptly ended when the Spurs used their inept shooting and poor rebounding play to never lead in the game yet lose just 93-91 at home to the Lakers. The defending champs are down 3-1 in the series and are pretty much done, so no Spurs/Pistons to send the ABC execs to suicide watch.
It was an enjoyable game to watch (that's right, a Spurs game was enjoyable to watch because the other team is exciting), but it will be marred by the once again crap officiating that the NBA brings to the table. After the jump here are some bullet points where I saw some really poor decisions by Joey Crawford, Mark Wunderlich, and Joe Forte (mostly on the Lakers).
* Towards the end of the first quarter, Tim Duncan stormed his way for a powerful dunk. Somehow the refs figured that 3 Duncan steps = 2 human steps and no travel was called.
* The 2nd and 3rd quarter saw the Spurs get blocking fouls outside of the restricted zone even if a Lakers player is standing his ground for 5 seconds. The Lakers got nothing.
* Jordan Farmar got grabbed at least 2 times by Tony Parker at the end of the 3rd, no call.
* Before I get accusations of bias, the Lakers got away with some things. When Kobe Bryant stupidly shot with :18 on the shot clock leading to a Spurs fastbreak, Parker was clearly fouled by Fisher (which would've been his 5th IIRC). Instead, Joey Crawford (remember him Duncan?) gave no foul and counted Tony's basket, a goaltend by Lamar Odom.
* I've looked at that several times now, that is not even close to being a goaltend. Odom trapped it along the backboard and Parker should've gotten two shots.
* Now the final play of the game, 2.1 to go, season on the line. The slam dunk champion himself pump faked, D-Fish bit (ba-dum-cha), and there was clear contact. Barry puts up a prayer three after the contact that went wide right and that is the ball game.
The problem I have with that last play, is that should've been two shots, not three. No stupid continuation garbage at all, the Lakers were in the penalty, and it was clear Barry was trying to get a foul called and Popovich was trying to bait the Lakers D into thinking they were going for the win. Fisher had his elbow on Barry's back, and even though Barry made a terrible decision not to just force up a shot and go for 3 free throws, one of the refs should've blown the whistle, and call Fisher for his 6th foul (see above point).
The NBA has become bush league as far as officiating, they won't let them play anymore and when they do let them play it should be a foul. Who knows? Maybe Donaghy is right. Maybe other refs are into fixing these games as well because last night gave me a wild suspicion they tried to make this as long a series as possible.
Alright, onto the game.
What can I say, the Spurs put themselves in a position they shouldn't have been in. They tied the game 5 times yet every time they went for the lead, they shot a three. They went 7-24 from downtown and Barry took half of them. It's obvious San Antonio lives by the three pointer and that's what costing them the series.
LA completely shut down Tony Parker's usual drive to the basket and made him a jump shooter, Manu Ginobili went 1-7, Robert Horry is afraid to shoot now, it's basically Duncan and Barry picking up the slack of the rest of their teammates.
Even with all of that domination by the Lakers, the Spurs were gifted a chance to win because they went to the line 500 times. But they couldn't knock down a three when it mattered, they couldn't make the big shots, and their imminent doom comes on Thursday night.
Thoughts on last night? Because clearly the Spurs had the chance because the Lakers wilted under pressure (AGAIN!! Remember the Utah game 6?), couldn't close the game out, and should've won.
But, should've is the key word, bye bye boring San Antonio, and Pau Gasol, meet your first ever NBA Finals.
(Photo from Getty Images and Stephen Dunn)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
NBA: WHERE POOR OFFICIATING HAPPENS
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3 comment(s):
I agree with your points. It probably was a 2 shot foul for Barry but I mean, the Spurs of all teams are complaining about calls?
This team repeatedly has benefited from calls and their whole title last is still tainted in my mind because of the whole Suns suspended fiasco.
Manu redefined the "flop", Duncan whines every other shot and gets away with numerous over the back calls, and Tony Parker throws himself into defenders looking for the bailout call.
Regardless of the officiating, the Lakers still outplayed the Spurs last night and they deserved to win the game.
They weren't complaining big time, I think Barry was kinda hoping instead of being 100% sure. Even Popovich (who I thought was going to kill his timeouts before the end of the 3rd) didn't go ape about it.
Once again, it's a matter of closing out a quarter, and they failed again.
Sorry, I'm with Mac.
They swallowed the whistle all night - they should make a call with under 3 seconds to go that runs in the face of the game?
The Spurs had the benefit of the whistle all night, they get one against them and that's the one everyone's pointing to.
How about the Fisher shot seconds before that should have equated a reset on the clock - which would've meant the Spurs had to foul Kobe rather than rush him (you missed that one)... and probably negated the last play?
Even the way you talk about the 'stuffed up calls' from the refs equates to the Spurs getting a nice lil' assist or two from the refs, so not sure what your gist is re. the Spurs "...putting themselves in a position.." and "Because clearly the Spurs had the chance... and should've won." - they didn't. The boys with the whistles did.
The bottom line is that the right team won on the night. San Antonio got hosed by the Lakers on the boards, were out-played from beginning to end.
If you truly think that the Spurs deserved that game, we weren't watching the same one.
But cheers, and welcome to the Carnival...
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