I always thought there were a lot of pretty Rockets-biased people on this board -- myself included -- but its nothing like the Lake Forum. I was cruising it just for fun and almost laughed myself sick at some of the inanities.
Yeah, all the great shotblockers go after shots with BOTH hands. It was no violent but it was flagrant.
What about the 15-20 seconds the Rockets were able to take off the clock before Francis turned the ball over? Had the Flagrant NOT been called and Francis converted the 2 free throws he would have had anyway, the Lakers would have gotten the ball back with about 15-20 seconds more on the clock.
Actually, if we want to get bogged down in semantics, we could say that extra 15-20 secs would have given the Rockets a shot to win the game at the end of regulation after Kobe missed his shot at the end. In the end, point wise, the call cost them nothing, and only the T on their coach really cost them anything.
There's no way Posey should have been called for a foul against Kobe in the closing seconds. Yes, I have 2 eyes and can admit there was contact. I can take off my Rocket red glasses and see that Posey wasn't stationary, didn't hold his position, so technically a foul could have been called there. But I've also watched enough games to know that refs won't bail you out when you're up in the air on a wing & a prayer, hucking up some desperation "shot" while begging for free throws in the closing seconds of a game. That rarely (if ever) happens. And although I'm Rockets biased, I still believe that Shaq foul was flagrant, although I do agree with sentiments expressed that refs should not play such an important role in the outcome of games. Personally, I think it should have been a flagrant foul, and therefore was a good call, but I don't mind anyone giving the refs a hard time on that particular call ... as long as they acknowledge this wasn't the only bad call in the game, and they're willing to move on.
Yeah, that call was a bit suspicious. But that is the nature of the game, like other teams have to live with it when they play lakers. Also, there were bad calls against Rox, e.g. the one called out of bounds off YM's foot, who actually was nowhere near the ball. Again this is the nature of the game, and bad calls tends to cancel each other for both sides. Again, if laker was that good, it should never came down to a call for them to deciside the game. I believe Rox would sstill won the game even if it wasnt called flagrant, because Francis would still shoot the FT for 2 pts, and Rox actually didnt score on the next poession.
You guys are hilarious. No doubt it is the Lakers fault for losing the game, but at least acknowledge that the officiating was in the Rox favor. Don't be ignorant of what's going on right in front of you.
the flagrant foul was a brutal call. no disagreements on that. ultimately, it didn't make a difference, but it was still a bad call. as for the officiating being slanted towards the rockets, the way i see it is that officiating almost always is slanted towards the home team. la's just used to being the home team everywhere they play.
Hmmm... the Lakers called Sacramental the Queens for blaming the officiating for their loss ("not taking the loss like a man") in game 7 last year. Now they are blaming the officiating for their loss in this super-hyped game. So what should we call them? The Lakesses?
This is one bad call out of a badly officiated game. Phil gave this game away when he made that T. If he had known Steve wouldn't hold the ball and almost cost the Rockets the game... The Lakers fans I know were dissapointed because they were hyped up on the Shaq and Yao matchup that turned out to be the Steve Francis show.
