if manu plays like he did during the reg. season, the spurs are the better team. but the playoffs test you. manu just cannot handle the consistent grind of the playoffs. pop might need to reduce his minutes a little more next year to conserve him. but the spurs are still right there. but you can also say the lakers don't have bynum.
Actually, if you go back and replay it, Odom got the ball just prior to it hitting the glass. It was NOT a goaltend.
Agreed, they're elitist, but not to the extent of the Yankees in baseball. There is enough parity in the NBA to keep them from buying championships. That said, the Spurs are our rivals and to see Bruce Bowen out there trying to injure our players and to see Ginobili put on his flopping act against Houston, I can't help but root against San Antonio.
Every call other than the final one went against lakers. When TD shot 11 FT today and Kobe shot total 6 FT in this series, and we are still discussing Refs helped Lakers?
Anybody know if TNT is gonna show a rebroadcast of this game like they've been doing with the other playoff games recently?
I apologize for posting this question before searching myself. The rebroadcast is coming up at 2 am on TNT: http://www.tnt.tv/schedule/daily/?oid=5/27/2008EST0 The times listed on this schedule are eastern.
I had two friends -- diehard Mavs fans who hate the Spurs -- constantly texting me during the game about how terrible the officiating was in favor of the Lakers. I could care less what the free throw disparity numbers are -- unless there's something absurdly dramatic (along the lines of 27 freebies in a quarter), it is centered around a flawed premise that free throws should be relatively level from team to team. Doesn't work that way. If it were only me, I wouldn't have reacted the way I did because I understand my own biases. But it's precisely because other non-biased fans saw it the same way that I felt how I did. And sorry, whether Derek Fisher's ball might have slightly grazed the rim wasn't anywhere remotely close to as obvious as Fisher leaping in the air and colliding with the potential shooter of the game-deciding shot while in motion. Yes, in the end, the calls evened out. The better team most likely won. I don't dispute that. My problem is in the intent of the on-court officials, which was painfully obvious on the last possession. The Lakers-Celtics matchup seems the most likely reason, though maybe it's the same bizarre rationale that Joey Crawford used to eject Tim Duncan from a game for laughing. Who knows. Whatever it is, I have a hard time believing how a trained basketball official could watch a defender leave his feet, leap into the air and collide with the shooter of the game-deciding shot, and not know that's a foul. For anyone who thinks officials wouldn't make such a call down the stretch, take a look at Scola's Game 2 "foul" against Kirilenko. Much, much less obvious and 100 times less relevant to the result of the play than what happened with Fisher/Barry. Whistle blown on Scola, game and series decided on pure crap. Where was this magic "last minute code" then? Maybe it's not bias and the officials are just that damn incompetent, stupid and inconsistent. I suppose it's possible. I just have a hard time believing a professional basketball league can't do better than this, if it wanted to. Maybe I'm wrong.
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lDc31xBkBg0&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lDc31xBkBg0&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> Looks like barry traveled, watch his feet, he moves his pivot foot before attempting to put the ball on the ground. Of course it could be argued that the contact made him travel. I mean obviously there is no way a ref is going to see in slow motion like that. In conclusion, barry just sucks ass at drawing a foul. Should have went into fisher instead of putting the ball on the ground. Anyways, my discontent for the spurs makes me glad it was a no call.
no no no, there's actually a conspiracy to get the lakers in the finals. never mind that manu has sucked, duncan has been inconsistent, and finley, horry, and even bowen to some extent are just old, and the laker were actually the best team in the WC and the Celtics were the best in the EC, its a conspiracy. i guess david stern decided to implement this brilliant plot after letting the oh so exciting spurs and pistons dominate the latter part of the decade. please conspiracy theorists, go away
which team has benefitted from the imcompetence of the refs is not the point. i believe each fan base of both teams can make a ton of argument for their "case". the spurs are my favorite team outside of rockets. i've been rooting for them in the playoffs. but if they do go home early, i'm not gonna lose my sleep (like i literally did when we lost). after all to pick another team is just for myself to be still interested and keep watching. but a foul is foul. there is no freaking way that you have to SELL a foul for the refs to call it a foul, be it the first minute of the game or the last minute. as a fan, i want to see the best team win it all; so fair play and competent refs are a must. all those comments about selling a foul bother me. that is part of the reason you have floppers in this league. and if any rockets fan insists that last-second foul should not be called for 2 free throws because barry didn't "sell" it hard enough, then for the same reason please never ever complain about the karl malone bear hug again.
Fisher's shot hit the rim, I saw it, Phil at the court side saw, why the hell refs didn't? At the end of the day, Lakers were the better team and they deserved the win.
i've said many times. incompetence of the refs. all teams suffer from it one way or the other. yes, you can use many examples where the lakers suffered; i'm sure a spurs fan can give you many instances where their team suffered, too. one bad call is not the reason for the next one. and inconsistency, too. while sasha got a 4pt play with much less contact on him, fisher's obvious foul in the waning seconds wasn't foul? while "don't foul a jump shooter because it's cardinal sin in bball" is considered defense 101, fouling a 3pt shooter in the last seconds is okay? throughout the series, i don't see the lakers as the CLEARLY better team. gasol misses 2 ft's in the final moments; kobe makes a boneheaded decision not running down the clock; fisher leaves his feet and fouls barry while the lakers in the penalty; etc. how can you say they "deserve" the win? if anything, they almost blew a seemingly safe lead and got a lucky (rather than deserving) win. i assume most here are big rockets fans. now tell me why have we been complaining about that bear hug by karl malone? i thought clyde didn't "sell" it hard enough...
I think the Lakers have been the better for the most part, but I don't see them as superior team, I actually believe they would get exposed against Pistons and possibly Boston. the Spurs centers have been nonexistent, I think Kendrick Perkins or Rasheed will definitely show why both of those teams did better against the West than SA. Also, the defense is going to be slightly better against those two teams. Im sure LA and Boston will be push, while LA will be favorite in like 5 games over Detroit. I think the Pistons are slightly tougher matchup, since they play little more aggressive on defensive and have pretty good bench. But I still don't believe this series is over, esp if SA wins game 5 and sends back SA. I think it will definitely go 7, if that happens.
