The Thunder were let down by their point guard play, but they still played well after their slow start.
I wasn't going to say anything, but Joey Crawford + Lakers home crowd seems to be a recipe for...... timely interventions.
Actually you are right, Westbrook is the louder and obnoxious version of Rose and more durable, slightly less talented on the outside, not the best of leader, but more because of his temperament He has matured a lot since day 1. Rose is better but Brick is up and coming
Wait what? Career sadly nearing the end? lol... I'm confused. How is Rose's career sadly nearing the end?
In the last 5 minutes, LA shot 12 FTs and OKC shot 2 (from Perkins). Both sides were playing physical as hell, but only one team was getting penalized for it. How is that called tight on both sides?
Now, everyone sees why I dislike the Lakers and Joey Crawford. Have they won any championships, recently without help from the officials? It's unbelievable how no one has filed a complaint against Crawford.
It's funny how this guy is quick to dismiss players he doesn't like but when it comes to his boys like T-Mac and LeBron, he gives them the benefit of the doubt.
That's just not true. In the last two minutes, Artest was very physical with Durant. All sorts of subtle bumps and pushes to get him out of his ideal positions. On one occasion, Ron grabbed his jersey trying to fight through a screen. And you know what? I'm fine with that, because that's usually what happens in the final minutes of big playoff games. But it wasn't equal on the other end. Not only did Kobe get those calls, but he received multiple trips to the line on plays where he didn't even have the ball and was 25 or more feet away from the basket. In a tight game with two good defenses, it's incomprehensible for an official to just give away points that easily. F4P is right in that Harden got some cheap calls too, but virtually none came in the final five minutes. That's the difference. At various points in the game, officials do whistle ticky-tack fouls to try and take command of physical play. Happened to both sides. Then, in the final minutes with everything on the line... the Lakers were allowed to use their muscle to bump and hold Durant, while the Thunder weren't allowed to put a finger on Kobe even if he was 25 feet from the bucket and without the ball. It was a pretty blatant difference.
I like physical play as well. The problem most people have are with an entire two foul calls. An entire two calls. One with 3 minutes left and one with a minute left. We're supposed to ignore the Harden foul calls that he got just because it was 7 minutes left instead three. The Thunder bodied up Kobe on other possessions as well. I remember the first foul was running down the court and ridiculous. The second one was stupid defense by James Harden though with a minute left.
So, let me get this straight. A foul was called on James Harden..... for touching Kobe's jersey. Not for grabbing and pulling Kobe's jersey, just touching it.