The Lakers Queens game 6 in 2002, Lakers shot 15 more FT, this game Magic had +17. No doubt stern tried hard to make it even. He couldn't help the FT though.
no itll be ignored because its the lakers even though the reffing in this game was a complete sham. scott foster looked like he was personally brought in by the magic. i find it disturbing that a guy that donaghy called over 100 something times is still a ref in the nba.
Hrm, while I do agree somewhat with the whole conspiracy thing of favoring some teams, in this economy it's all about the money regardless of historic franchise status. "ABC said Wednesday that Orlando’s 108-104 win Tuesday night in Game 3 earned a 10.1 overnight rating. That’s down 6 percent from the 10.8 for last season’s Game 3, which featured a Celtics team with far more tradition and a bigger market than the Magic." -ESPN Also, NHS Finals Game 6 was on at the same time. So, relatively new/underdog franchise is just 6 % under Boston's fans. That's great news for these people. Prolonging this to a Game 7 is in the NBA and its clients' business interests so the calls will be going Orlando's way to stave off elimination.
The Magic are putting up a much better fight than I thought they would. The gap between the two teams isn't that wide, but wide enough. The big difference is the Lakers' discipline and execution down the stretch. And as in the Cleveland series, I'm really impressed with SVG's coaching job. Overall, this is a better series than I expected.
Really? REALLY? Did SVG really think it was a good idea to let Jameer Nelson play so many crucial minutes in the NBA Finals against a stacked Lakers team? Especially when the Rafer/Anthony PG rotation did fine in beating the seemingly invincible Cavs in 6 games? I know Rafer/Anthony looks like a terrible PG combo on paper, but they were a part of the rotation that BEAT THE CAVS IN SIX. You don't mess with what is working for your team. SVG and the entire Magic team is fine with letting their chance to win the championship slip away because they feel sorry for Jameer Nelson and want him to play more minutes than he really should? And why hasn't Jameer Nelson spoken up about this in the lockerroom? "Hey coach, I don't think you should give me so many minutes since I just got back from injury and the team was playing so well without me anyways. I haven't exactly dominated since I got back either, so here I am, respectfully asking you reduce my minutes so the team has a greater chance winning the series against the Lakers and the NBA championships." If Jameer Nelson did that he would be revered as a hero. The city of Orlando would build 10 statues of him. Cmon Jameer, do it for the greater good! I truly think if Jameer did not come back to play in the NBA finals, the Magic and Lakers would be tied 2-2 right now
I've said it a thousand times. Free throw attempts mean absolutely nothing as to who was favored by the officials in a game. One team can have 50 more free throws than another and still be screwed, if they deserved more. Some teams will get to the line more than others -- it's just the nature of how teams are constructed. It's completely illogical to think two teams should go to the line almost the same amount of times, if a game is fairly called. There's no correlation. With that said, on the game-winning shot, Kobe Bryant viciously elbowed the defender square in the mouth, knocked him out of the play, and Fisher hit the shot without even an attempt at a closeout. Conspiracy? I don't know, but if you don't think LA's game-winning bucket came on a play that shouldn't have counted, you're completely and totally delusional.
That is not completely true. West or Kupchak may have a part of it but that is not the main reason. West was the GM in Memphis for a couple of years and I don’t see him doing so well there. The owner, Bus (?), being a shrewd businessman and LA being a huge and attractive market for talents, in my opinion, play critical roles in the Lakers’ success. Once you have Kobe who is a top talent, physically durable, and such a competitor, it is easy to for any franchise to build a team around him. Then they got PJ as the head coach and Gasol for free, which really makes them what they are now.
Watch Skip Bayless on ESPN First Take (comes on again at 11am CT). I completely agree with his take on this.
You already know that Rafer is gone from the Magic come next season if SVG is still the Head Coach. The only possible explanation for leaving Nelson was that he made a few nice passes, but his own offense was obviously non-existent and he was liability on defense. Someone pointed out to me that SVG and Rafer had a bit of a shouting match before a commercial break, which I wouldn't be surprised is the reason Nelson took all of the 4th quarter and overtime. Because if game 3 should have taught Van Gundy anything, it should be that Rafer getting more minutes then Nelson being on the court is usually a good thing. Its a shame, Pietrus and Hedo put on good games last night and easily could have won had a few stops been made in the final minutes of the fourth.
Not if it's 17:0 in 4th quarter, in a tight game like this. With the best perimeter player in the league driving so many times. It's phantom calls on one side and no calls on the other, several replays clearly showed Kobe was hit on the shooting hand without a call. On the other side of the floor, Howard had so many touch foul. In one occasion, he pushed Gasol to the floor and it became a Fisher foul.
What will you do with a long pass? You move your hands towards yourself first before releasing the ball, and your elbows will rotate out a bit. That's the offensive player's legal space. Nelson was moving, and didn't give Kobe any space. It's a defensive foul if one should be called.
you cant tell me the officials werent favoring the magic when their first team foul in the fourth came at 1:40 left in the fourth. anyone with an unbiased eye could tell you that the reffing in that 4th quarter was beyond despicable.
I agree there are lots of Lakers haters, but most of them are just jealous. I am jealous too, although I don't hate them. But sometimes you just need pure luck. The Dallas series, if we had a healthy Juwan instead of Bowen, we would have been in WCF. Tracy was at top form, Yao was healthy and improving rapidly. If West or Kupchak was running the Rockets back then, heck, even if DM was running the team, we would have gotten a true 3rd option. People would have been all high on the TMac-Yao tandem.
This isn't true at all. Go the hoopshype.com and read the rumors section at the top. They have plenty of quotes from the game. It explains the whole situation. SVG is just an extremely weird coach. Look at what he's done with Reddik and Courtney Lee. Jameer Nelson has been terrible, but he leaves Anthony Johnson on the bench. Johnson had been solid all year.
pre-riots breaking out in East LA already... http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/local/Lakers_Fans_Go_Wild_in_East_LA_20090611
Stats say it all....Playing Jameer Nelson in finals was a mistake http://www.nba.com/playerfile/rafer_alston/game_by_game_stats.html
Rafer was critical to the Magic's success in playoffs this year...when Rafer plays 30+ minutes Magic usually win..I rest my case http://www.nba.com/playerfile/rafer...game_stats.html
the shot shoud have counted, plus a foul on Nelson who ran into Kobe's elbow. Kobe was defened Peotreus (i think) and he was clearing space (swing his arms side to side to estblish boundry around him. Nelson ran to Kobe to D-up; but he ran past that imaginery boundry. when he caught the elbow, Kobe had position (two feet planted on floor) and Nelson had no postion (he was running)
