Um, so yeah…

… the officiating was weak in game 4 between the Spurs and the Lakers. I’m going to try to be completely un-bias, which I think is possible because I dislike both teams. I think I hate the Spurs more, but I can never root for the Lakers, unless Odom is directly involved. Complicated, and no one cares.

Anyway, on to the officiating in tonights game. AWFUL. Let me explain.

Luke Walton gets NO respect. First he got called for a travel on a play where they easily could’ve called a foul on the spurs. Then a few plays later he dribbles near flopoholic Robert Horry who “draws” a charge by jumping backwards. It was definitely a block or a no call. I would like to point out that the travel by Walton was much less egregious than the three running steps by Duncan that preceded a dunk in the second quarter. Laker fans should’ve been pretty angry at this point in the game.

…But Laker fans have no right to be angry anymore. The refs made up for these few bad calls with a SEASON KILLING bad call on the last play of the game. Yup, it was a foul. You can’t just not call fouls in the last minute of the game. Fisher rammed into Brent Barry with one second left in the game and the score 93-91. Barry understandably forced up a wild three and the game ended 93-91. They call that foul and you have career 82% freethrow shooting Brent Barry at the line with a chance to tie the game.

They interviewed Kobe Bryant after the game. “No foul,” was all he would say. What else is he gonna say? It’s obviously a foul and Joey “call a tech on duncan for laughing” Crawford killed the Spurs again. I guess in a way it’s the ultimate revenge for Crawford, who, I believe, previously got fined because of his poor treatment of the Spurs.

This call was really bad, and I had money riding on the Lakers. Sure it was 11 cents, but it’s still money. if a guy who bets on the Lakers can say that was a bad call, then everyone can admit that was a bad call. Right Socal? (In no way do I think Socal will say it was a bad call.)

So basically, the refs were bad throughout, culminating in a bad call that will be talked about in San Antonio for awhile. Did the refs make up for bad calls against the lakers with that last bad call? Perhaps, but that last no call robbed us of one of the more exciting finishes in sports, a guy at the line shooting two, down two.

On a side note, with about a minute left Odom hit two clutch free throws and then the rest of the Lakers team proceeded to try as hard as they could to give away the game (kobe included). It was very reminicent of this (here for full version). Why would Kobe shoot that shot? Just a strange game.

A Pistons-Spurs Final?

Now, I’m not trying to be biased here, but I took some issue with this recent article that says the NBA should wish for a Spurs-Pistons final.

Forgive me, citizens of Easily Entertained, Need-Flash-To-Appreciate Nation for this blasphemous proposal:

Let’s root for another edition of Pistons versus Spurs in the NBA Finals!

(Trying to block out the sound of 260 million people collectively groaning.)

You got that right. Although, lucky for you, I am sufficiently interested in the NBA to see what kind of crap you’re going to pull out next.

Full disclosure: As a Detroiter, I would love to see the Pistons in the Finals for the sixth time in my lifetime.

Ok, that accounts for the Pistons. But how do we explain the Spurs?

But this isn’t about me. This is about the league’s credibility.

Yes, because the NBA would be SO much more credible if it had another NBA finals that no one watched or paid attention to.

The biggest NBA conspiracy theory going right now is that the league is trying to make a Boston-L.A. Finals happen, because it would mean insane television ratings and a return to the time when the dominance of those two franchises overshadowed everything else in sports.

Well, Boston has gotten some pretty questionable calls against it – see game 6 against the Cavs – and they just lost Game 2 to Detroit when it probably would’ve been pretty easy for the refs to swing that in Boston’s favor given how close the margin was at the end. So I’m not sure if the league is trying to get Boston to the finals.

I’m going to save my judgement on the Lakers’ officiating because I’m afraid it’d be inevitably biased.

If this were any other NBA season, the insinuation that the league was somehow working to orchestrate the return of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry would be considered a real reach — but not when the Tim Donaghy betting scandal is still looming.

But if it’s Pistons-Spurs, the NBA Finals will be conspiracy-free.

Forgive me, but as long as there are fans of a team, there will ALWAYS be conspiracy theories about how a game is reffed. Frankly, any time a team has homecourt advantage, they get calls, or no-calls, they probably should not get. (see game 5 lakers-jazz no-call with gasol in closing minutes) And since both of these teams entered these series AS THE HIGHER SEED – how is it a conspiracy if they win? The Lakers are toying with the Spurs and it has nothing to do with the refs. Kobe has been running circles around the Spurs D and Poppovich has no answer for the triangle. And Boston beat Detroit twice in three tries this season, so why shouldn’t they win the majority of games in the playoffs?

Unlike the Lakers and Celtics, the Pistons and Spurs didn’t get to the conference finals with the help of questionable blockbuster deals.

Yes, because the Spurs got Tim Duncan completely legitimately by tanking the ‘97 season when David Robinson “rested” for the second half of the year. And can we please stop talking about the Garnett and Gasol deals? Kevin Garnett isn’t the only piece of this puzzle. What about the individual improvement of Kendrick Perkins, Leon Powe and Rajon Rondo, the drafting of Glen Davis this year and the trade for Ray Allen? I’d even argue that Paul Pierce is the MVP of that team and they don’t win unless the supporting cast gets it done – see game 2.

With regards to the Lakers, Andrew Bynum was playing spectacularly before he went down and the Lakers could have been this good next year when he came back if they hadn’t gotten Gasol now. Let’s not forget that Kobe Bryant is playing the best ball of his career, they resigned Derek Fisher to provide another solid floor leader, Lamar Odom’s consistency in the playoffs has been unreal, the “Bench Mob” of Sasha/Turiaf/Walton/Farmar has improved drastically this season, and the midseason trade for Ariza added a valuable defensive stopper. That’s a lot of other personnel movement that has accounted for L.A.’s success.

If you complain you’re sick of seeing NBA teams that don’t play hard, root for Pistons-Spurs.

I don’t think anyone has the intensity of Kevin Garnett. And Kobe especially REFUSES to let his teams lose. Besides, these youngins on LA and Boston play with tremendous passion – just look at how crazy Big Baby and Ronny Turiaf get during games.

If you love teams that win because of their commitment to team basketball, root for Pistons-Spurs.

The Lakers are the best passing team in the NBA and they win because EVERYONE gets involved. And the Celtics are friggin’ UBUNTU!

If you’re sick of seeing basketball dominated by And-1 wannabes, root for Pistons-Spurs.

Don’t even try to call the Black Mamba an “And-1 wannabe”. The boy is a beast. These two teams both have great role players like James Posey, Derek Fisher, P.J. Brown, and Lamar Odom – all of whom fill a niche on their respective teams without being super flashy.

Pistons-Spurs — that’s what we all should be dying to see.

I actually think I might die if I see it.

Conference Finals Preview-ish

Aight so everyone knows I’m bias. I’m not really gonna try not to be.

Lakers-Spurs

Oh My GAWD please let the Spurs lose this series. This being said I will probably be rooting for them in every game because it’s weird to root for the Lakers (not as weird as the fact that I root for Lamar Odom and against his team). But seriously people if the finals is Spurs-Pistons again, I will punch myself in the head. The Spurs are just boring to watch.

Ok so “analysis”…

The Spurs love playing boring, hand-check filled, frequent foul but not called because its the playoffs, style defense. The key to the series is if the Spurs will be able to get away with all this crap on the perimeter. If they are allowed to grab kobe at the top of the key, then he’ll have more trouble creating. Also if they can hold onto Derek Fisher’s jersey, then they can play him tight and he won’t be able to make as many threes. On offense the Spurs play that crappy, give it to the guy in the post and then kick it out to no-name guys who can shoot threes, offense. This offense is similar to every single offense at the college level. If fricken Udoka is hitting mad threes, they will score lots of points. Oh and Robert Horry is “clutch” and deserves to be in the Hall of Fame (probably the most sarcastic statement I have ever said in my life).

The Lakers need Kobe to play awesome and (seroiusly) need to give the ball to Lamar Odom if anyone is guarding him other than Duncan. Odom can take anyone else. Let Lamar get the ball at the top of the key, there is pretty much no big man in the league that can stay with him off the dribble. Odom sometimes misses lay-ups though. So he needs to make his shots. Also, never play Farmar. That would help.

On defense the Lakers just have to not be lulled asleep by the one of the most boring offenses ever. If Tony Parker didn’t slash like he sometimes does, it would be the most boring offense ever (besides the cavs).

My Prediction (not our prediction): Lakers in 5, Lakers win all their home games and take one in San Antonio, I’m guessing game 4. Also, I get the feeling the refs will be in favor of the Lakers and the Spurs won’t be able to handcheck too much. Also, the Lakers will get, like, a full second to shoot when the clock says .4. Wait no that happened already. And yeah, it is impossible to catch the ball, turn, and shoot in .4 seconds. I don’t care how rushed the shot is. I don’t really know why I’m picking a fight here, because that was a good game and it was cool to watch. Um, whatever, nevermind.

Celtics-Pistons

Game 1 starts in like 2 hours, are you pumped? I’m pumped. Look for me at game 5 (if necessary). I’m trying to get tickets, I may not, though, if I want to save my money for Finals tickets, but if the Celts are losing I gotta go to one game right? (nobody cares).

I actually think that many people are going to root for the Celtics here. I know it goes against the “hate all boston teams at all cost” pledge that everyone in America signs when they are born outside of New England, but who wants the Pistons in the Finals again? (yawn) Boooooring… Their style of play is lame. I really wanted Orlando to beat them.

“analysis”

The Pistons and Celtics play good defense. The defenses will be there, so sombody’s gotta step up on offense. I look for Rip Hamilton to NOT be that guy. Maybe this is a gut feeling, but I really think that chauncey and Rasheed will have good series but Rip is gonna suck. I just think his jumpers style of play will not work against the Celtics in a long series and he will try to be unselfish and pass the ball to guys like Tayshaun and Rodney Stuckey, which is a bad idea.

If the Celtics can score, basically if Ray Allen comes back to life and/or Paul Pierce can play like he did in game 7, the Celtics will win. If they cannot, they will lose. They CANNOT score 70ish points in a few games and win this series (obvious point of the year). The pistons will probably try to help off of rondo/perk and trap Pierce coming off screens. If the Celtics had a head coach this wouldn’t matter, but because they are the only team in the league that hasn’t hired a coach for this season, this could be a problem (the cavs have a coach, he is just dumb).

Here’s to pessimism, and thinking that Pierce will take a lot of shots that he won’t make.

Prediction: Pistons in 6

But if something like this happens, then Celts in five and Maxiell murdered by KG.

So we’re lookin at a possible Lakers-Pistons Finals AGAIN! At least it’s better than Spurs-Pistons part deaux. Also Lakers-Pistons finals gives me a good idea for my LSAT essay.

This Is a Big Deal Yes?

Does the NBA usually admit when it is wrong? I was pretty shocked when they did the replay of that heat hawks game earlier this year. And now the NBA comes out with this.

“After reviewing the video of last night’s Pistons-Magic game, we determined that the play that concluded with Chauncey Billups’ 3-point field goal at the end of the third quarter took approximately 5.7 seconds,” the statement read. “Because there were only 5.1 seconds remaining in the quarter when the play began, the shot would not have counted had the clock continued to run.”

Even though the magic lost by more than three, the game was certainly close enough for magic fans to be angry(at least the shot clock worked). And now the Magic are up like 20 points in the first quarter in game three. I thought the NBA didn’t want a Spurs-Pistons finals. But after the Billups play, and some questionable calls (Duncan tripping on his own feet, Bowen knocking the ball out of bounds) in the spurs suns series, Im not so sure. (Here’s ginobili doin what he does best)