One of the fundamental principles of basketball is to box out potential rebounders. With everything on the line, someone didn't do their job. Just crazy.
Neither team deserves this honestly. Both teams have **** the bed on some of the most basic basketball principles this entire series, it's a little embarrassing.
This is such a weird playoffs I bet Joe Mazulla wins a chip after it looked like he was going to be fired.
Nuggets taking this. It's their destiny. Things are a just a little more exciting on the east because Miami has overachieved and Boston is not discipline enough to take care of business (almost lost the game tonight for goodness sakes when it didn't have to go down to the wire).
He will win the championship, be fired in a year or two and ride that championship for the next 15 years as you wonder how he keeps getting jobs. Spoiler
Hell yeah!! Would love it way more if finals has the Celtics, even if I want and expect Nuggets to take it all. P.S. one of my main reasons: I hate the Heat home floor. Just an eye soar to watch.
By the way, did refs cause Strus not to box out? For all the complaints about the refs, this game sure ended on the players terms.
As a Rockets fan surely you can acknowledge refs can play a big role. We couldn't hit a 3 against the Warriors but we also got reamed by the refs. End of the day it's up to the players to do their jobs but sometime they have to play against greater odds. Edit. Also that YaoMac vs Mavs series. Suddenly what was ok in Game 1 and 2 wasn't anymore and Finley didn't have to stay on the floor to touch the ball lol
To be fair to Strus, he helped Butler with pressuring Tatum so that White didn't inbound the ball to him. Problem was, White had a direct path to the basket for an offensive rebound while Strus had to navigate from flashing out to guard Tatum to not bumping into Smart in his upward motion to trying to get in position to box out White, all in 3 seconds. Yes, White was Strus' man and his responsibility, but I'm sure some coaching was involved that put Strus on a Tatum cover, pre-inbound pass...regardless of how long the cover was supposed to take.
Good looking out. Strus almost fouled Smart trying to haul ass towards White. **** happens then. Ultimately, not decided by the refs.