The Rockets lost because they couldn't stop Malone's free throws. Francis sure is mean to be throwing balls at people's legs. He got so mad just because a timeout was called? He really needs to control his temper, don't you think?
I was just coming here to post that from the ESPN article (but had the good sense to look around first). The ESPN recap was a total joke. Did they run that by Big Brother? It completely misconstrues both technical fouls. The phantom calls were bad enough. ESPN just adds insult to injury.
Here's what the Utah press is saying. Even they admit that there was no technical in either situation. http://www2.sltrib.com/jazz/main/index.asp Stevie Nixed BY STEVE LUHM THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE JAZZ 83, ROCKETS 79 Things got a little turned around Thursday night at the Delta Center. Houston's Steve Francis was ejected. The Jazz were dejected. Though Utah was not about to throw back its 83-79 come-from-behind victory over the Rockets, the Jazz knew they had played sluggishly and barely survived, despite getting the biggest break imaginable with 9:48 left in the third quarter. That's when veteran referee Joe Crawford ruled that Francis threw a deliberate elbow at John Stockton. It was Francis' second dubious technical foul of the game, meaning he was automatically ejected. At the time, the Rockets owned a 52-51 lead. Francis had scored 27 points in his 23 minutes. He was 9-for-15 from the floor, including 4-for-6 from three-point range. "I thought he was headed for 60," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. "He was rolling," Stockton said. Instead of triumphantly leading the Rockets to victory, however, Francis was not allowed to finish what he started as the Jazz won for the seventh time in eight games. Karl Malone led Utah (19-16) with 30 points, including a pair of free throws with 25.6 seconds left that gave the Jazz an 81-79 lead. On the other end, Bryon Russell pressured Cuttino Mobley into missing a 20-footer. Rookie Andrei Kirilenko was fouled on the rebound, and he iced Utah's third consecutive win by burying two more free throws with 7.2 seconds remaining. Russell's defense on Mobley was one of the biggest plays for the Jazz, who improved to 16-2 in their last 18 games against Houston after trailing 77-72 with 4 1/2 minutes left. "I like it when he makes my job easier by taking a fade-away jump shot," Russell said. "My thing was not letting him get to the basket and, if he wanted to shoot a jump shot, then get a hand up in his face." Mobley scored 19 points, including 13 of Houston's 21 in the fourth quarter. "It was a competitive game that could have gone either way," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "I'm proud our guys didn't give up. . . . We just didn't make enough plays." Asked about Francis' ejection, Tomjanovich said, "I didn't see it. [Crawford] said he threw an elbow." "That's the way they saw it, and that's the way it's going to be," Francis said. "If they feel I was intentionally trying to hurt somebody, I've got to live with that." "I didn't see what happened," Stockton said. "I heard the whistle blow and then, whatever . . ." "It's one of those things that happen in basketball," Sloan said. "You hate to see it happen to anybody." Late in the first quarter, Francis also seemed to be a victim of circumstance. Trapped against the sideline by a Stockton-Malone double team, he tried to call a timeout. When he didn't get a quick response from the officials, he spun in the air and tried to fire the ball off Stockton and out of bounds. At that instant, however, Francis' request for time was granted. When he threw the ball at Stockton just a fraction of a second later, it was construed as an unsportsmanlike play by referee Leroy Richardson. "I ain't arguing either one of them," Francis said. In the end, the Jazz beat Houston for the 10th straight time in Salt Lake City. Stockton had a big outing with 19 points and six assists, while Scott Padgett reached double figures for the third straight game with 11. But all the talk after this game centered on Francis: his white-hot start and his ejection. "He was phenomenal, great," Tomjanovich said. "I wish it didn't happen because he really had it going." Referring to Francis' brilliant outside shooting, Stockton said, "I guess you like teams to try and beat you from out there. The problem is, he was."
Uh so which was it? Did Francis throw the ball at Malone and Stevenson as ESPN says? Or Stockton, like the Utah write-up says? And what about John Crotty, wasn't he in there on the ball-throwing technical? Am I imagining that John Crotty was part of that?
Obviously the photograph up on CC.net's main page is doctored because it clearly has Crotty standing there while we know from ESPN that it was actually Stevenson. Is ESPN relying on hearsay to write their articles. We should write to them, not the NBA. As bad as Crawford blew the call, ESPN blew the article even worse.
I can't believe ESPN's recap gives so much credit to Karl Malone for the win and almost passes over the fact that Francis had 27 points by halftime and was ejected shortly into the third. It's incredibly bad reporting, like Fox News.
