Okay I know it was not fixed but hey we didn't lose the game on our own either. The Spurs didn't deserve to win and I am sure they know it. What cost us the games were the ref and they did it basically on one play. They call a jump ball while Francis is in midair and he makes the shot no less. A jump ball, HOW CAN YOU CALL A JUMP BALL, HE MADE THE BASKET EVEN. They have the jump Spurs get it and while they are running down the court they spot an open Mario Elie for a 3-pointer. It was a 3-pointer that changed the momentum and a three pointer that should not have counted. Its over now but you could point to the tons of bad calls in the fourth quarter because the refs don't have the guts to call a fifth on Duncan or a sixth on Robinson. Hey what a suprise the refs had an effect on the outcome. You get 2 fouls until you hit the penalty in overtime. Well the refs call a phantom foul on Hakeem in which both him and Robinson are going for the rebound. Hakeem does not push Robinson, none the less touch him. Robinson simply blew the revbound and knocked it out of bounds. A few plays later the Spurs go up for good on a play in which they call a foul on Kenny Thomas and Duncan goes to the line to shoot two, why they were in the penalty. What a joke. Hey there was some question in my mind because of the way he fell and the way Rudy reacted to the call. Basically Duncan goes to make hi move and with one step he goes pretty much straight down like he hit a slick spot, not a trip. Basically the game should have not gone to overtime but that nifty 5 point turnaround the Spurs got. The refs are making the game look more like the WWF everyday, while pro wrestling is fixed NBA ball is not but the refs definately make you want to believe that.
It seems to me that Kenny Thomas is getting an unusually high amount of rookie calls. He did a great job on Duncan otherwise.
In all honesty, the Rockets got the benefit of the calls for the first 3 quarters. Plenty of times Duncan was getting hacked without calls, several borderline traveling calls went the rockets way, and in general the officiating was pretty home-friendly. I mean at one point the rocks had 15 FT attempts to 2 for the spurs. However i missed seeing the apparently hideous jump ball call, and in overtime particularly the calls were one-sided for SA. I thought Hakeem might have fouled Robinson but the guy didn't call it until literally 5 seconds had gone by. Total BS. and Duncan fell down backing in against Kenny. But the bottom line is the officiating was probably equally damaging to each team, in my opinion. Cuttino being brain dead was a big problem (that foul on Porter out top when the rocks were already in the penalty? dumbest foul of the year, except for barkley's free throw foul).
The refs made up for that call with about 3 or 4 other calls almost immediately after that play. They knew they blew it. What I didn't appreciate was their unwillingness to foul out either Duncan or Robinson late in the 4th or in OT. Olajuwan fouled out plenty in his prime. Maybe they did us a favor. We know we're capable of beating the Spurs, and we're sitting pretty in the lottery race at #6 with 29 games to go. [This message has been edited by Tb-Cain (edited February 21, 2000).]
As bad as the call was. it could not be as bad as the fix the refs put on the Detroit-Utah game Saturday. With a 1 point lead, Russell clearly did not get a shot up until a second after the shot-clock expired. He missed and Hornacek got the rebound and a 3 pointer at the buzzer. There was no whistle on the 24 second violation as the refs just handed the game to Utah. Alvin Gentry was literally hopping mad. The call was so bad, I have to wonder if this is a league worth watching.
juanvaldez i turned on that game right before that play and couldn't believe it. I wanted to throw up. I couldn't believe Gentry didn't physically attack any of those refs.
Yes they did make up for it but at the same time it completely changed the momentum of the game. It fired the Spurs up and had that call not been made chances are the Spurs would have lost.
