[Western Conference Semifinals] (2)San Antonio vs. (3)Oklahoma City

And all three Incorrect Calls prior to the inbounds play went the Spurs way.

Man, Spurs break the plane (Technical) and had two other fouls before the inbounds pass (also Technicals). That's three missed Technicals on one play. Great example of swallowing whistles at the end...like Malone bear-hugging Barkley

I actually don't mind some of the no-calls once the ball is in play (like fighting for rebounds), but while the clock isn't moving stuff and egregious away from the play fouls that opens someone up, I can't stand.

I do appreciate these reports, and it clarified the following twitter discussion last night about one thing...which is cool the league would address that.

Spoiler

And for the record, it states that Waiters is allowed to jump, which is what most of us first thought. The rules say, "Cannot leave the playing surface." But it means cannot leave the field of play like "going into the stands." Jumping is not meant as "leaving the playing surface."

So, all the twitter comments about that (including Nunn agreeing) show how easy it is to over-read the rule book phrasing. I doubt the report would make mention of that, except to correct the twitter/media comments quoting the rules...so, I appreciate the L2R clarifying that. ​

 

Pretty hard, then, to argue the Spurs got screwed. First violation was Ginobili and even the overall "weight" of the calls was in the Spurs' favor (three missed calls on them vs. two on OKC).

In the end, the Spurs did get the ball and blew it. Pretty big and impressive win, overall, for the Thunder. Hope the whole series is back-and-forth.

 

i feel like two things are being overlooked in all of this.

a) the thunder won in san antonio, where only gsw won all season. it feels like this just being treated as a nice win over the spurs when it's fairly big for them to pull off.

b) steven adams D on the last play. not only challenges ginobili to make him pass but then sprints all the way out to mills and gets a piece of the shot. and that's on top of the fact that he just followed the inbounds pass and got back in the first place.

 

So i guess you CAN jump when inbounding

 

We could use a bruiser like Adams.

 

Yeah, that was weird wording in the Rules. "Can't leave the playing surface." Apparently they never meant to stop jumping, like soccer does, right? In the NBA, they just meant don't back up into the stands, it seems.

Couldn't they just word it better by saying you cannot move laterally or backwards more than x amt of steps, except after a FGM, when moving laterally along the baseline is allowed.

 

The Spurs get away with so much of this cheap crap. I still remember in the playoffs a couple of years ago when they had 6 guys on the court during the final play of the game as they failed to hit a game-winning shot against Dallas. Then in the Finals against the Heat the first time around, they made an illegal substitution to get Duncan on the court towards the end of one the closer games.

 

So after the dust has settled, this is what we get:

1. The refs let them play.
2. The Spurs got what they wanted--stealing the ball.
3. They blew it.

 

This.

Manu had an easy layup/floater opportunity but gave the ball to freaking Patty Mills lol.

good no calls by the refs

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dion Waiters on Aldridge: &quot;One man can't beat us.&quot;</p>&mdash; Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) <a href="https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/727910688308350976">May 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
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This might actually be their game plan, because they surely have ways to contest him better, especially in the PnR. The plan might be to make Aldridge beat them and focus on stopping Kawhi and the ball movement, by not devoting help defenders to the Pick n Pop, rather keep them at bay. SAS dares you to bring help to Aldridge. That one of their ways to get the ball moving.

So, maybe the game plan that is allowing Aldridge to score so much is make the ball stop with Aldridge, and hope he has off days. Of course, that did not work in Game 1 at all, as Kawhi burned them too.

 

lol on the flipside 2 guys won't beat SA. Waiters is irrelevant

 

Wasn't this our gameplan in the Portland series...didn't work out too well for us.

 

Especially one who cannot inbound a pass. :grin:

 

Poppovich is already irate at Parker for not making the right rotations on defense. Wish we had a coach that could yell at Harden like that.

 

Pop killing Parker for not helping on a Durant drive.

#GOATcoach

 

Kawhi is tooo gooodddd

 

Everyone is held responsible for their own actions.

 

Spurs look for alot of midrange shots. What a dumb team and inefficient way of scoring.

 

Damn Spurs bench pulling away.