Lakers-Suns

[kupman]

Great that you've been able to hold out this long. Just know this. Fortune favors the prepared mind.

Jordan pushing off Russell. Pippen's foul of Hubert Davis. Webber knocking ball out of bounds, Kings retain. Malone railroads Drexler off floor to free up Stockton. Zo goaltends what would've been a buzzer beater by Dee Brown in 93 Boston/Charlotte clincher. Malone hacks Van Exel's arms on last sec shot attempt at Delta Center in 97. Incorrect disallowment of Baron's 3 to win gm against Orlando. Bron's travels.

Great reply! I have been watching the NBA my whole life so I do remember a lot of the examples you give. You should consider making a video montage of the great playoff missed calls.

I maintain that the officiating actually gets worse in the playoffs and is at its worse with under 1 minute to go. At times I have just turned my TV off and said the h*ll with it because I get so disgusted with the calls. It is never this bad during the regular season.

 

[Gargamel]

Great reply! I have been watching the NBA my whole life so I do remember a lot of the examples you give. You should consider making a video montage of the great playoff missed calls.

I maintain that the officiating actually gets worse in the playoffs and is at its worse with under 1 minute to go. At times I have just turned my TV off and said the h*ll with it because I get so disgusted with the calls. It is never this bad during the regular season.

It should be said that fans and players and coaches whine like never before. It started back in the late 80s and has reached a crescendo in the 2000s. Watch 70s and early/mid 80s games. The NORMAL reaction from a player to a horrible call was to turn around and walk away without saying anything. Today, everyone thinks that favorable calls are an entitlement and we tend to analyze bad calls down to every conceivable angle. We also reduce a game down to a bad call at the end of a game and don't tend as much to look at calls in their totality. There are a lot of grassy knolls out there.

I'd love to see a list of bad playoff calls or no-calls from the 70s and earlier. The fact that we don't know about that many of them is probably due to the fact that they weren't given so much analysis, exposure, or outrage. The year the Sonics won the title, one of the games was decided by free throws with no time remaining. Dennis Johnson fouled someone. He was pissed, but he didn't go insane over it and no one remembers it. If a Finals game were decided on foul shots at 0:00 today.....WOW.

 

[VF21]

It should be said that fans and players and coaches whine like never before. It started back in the late 80s and has reached a crescendo in the 2000s. Watch 70s and early/mid 80s games. The NORMAL reaction from a player to a horrible call was to turn around and walk away without saying anything. Today, everyone thinks that favorable calls are an entitlement and we tend to analyze bad calls down to every conceivable angle. We also reduce a game down to a bad call at the end of a game and don't tend as much to look at calls in their totality. There are a lot of grassy knolls out there.

I'd love to see a list of bad playoff calls or no-calls from the 70s and earlier. The fact that we don't know about that many of them is probably due to the fact that they weren't given so much analysis, exposure, or outrage. The year the Sonics won the title, one of the games was decided by free throws with no time remaining. Dennis Johnson fouled someone. He was pissed, but he didn't go insane over it and no one remembers it. If a Finals game were decided on foul shots at 0:00 today.....WOW.

Good points all, Gargy.

The microanalyzing and Monday-morning quarterbacking that goes on not only after every game but pretty much after every single play truly threatens to totally overwhelm the whole sport of basketball. On the whole, officials do a good job of interpreting a whole morass of rules on the fly while trying to allow the game to proceed.

 

[BigWaxer]

I maintain that the officiating actually gets worse in the playoffs and is at its worse with under 1 minute to go. At times I have just turned my TV off and said the h*ll with it because I get so disgusted with the calls. It is never this bad during the regular season.

Kup not sure I remember, (lack of sleep 26 hours or so) but are you a Kings fan? I ask this out of respect before I ask my next question...

 

[vladetomiller]

i am so rooting for the lakers against phoenix, kings-fan-obligatory-laker-hatred be damned! how awesome would a kings-lakers western conference finals matchup be this year?!?!

and it would be so contrary to the experts' predictions. kobe is amazing, the lakers are playing like a team. the zenmaster is proving he can coach a team without a host of perennial all-stars future-hall-of-famers at his call (apart from kobe). they've fought very hard against the suns, regardless of poor officiating (every series has had its share of poor officiating). i hope they advance to round two.

GREAT, I am rooting for the kings to beat the spurs as well. A team that has never repeated but has won three rings in the past few years by sterns rules.

I was so happy to see defenders being able to play duncan as they would any other post player, without getting called for touch fouls and ticky tacky fouls. His patented bank shot was always backed by the refs to bail him out every time and it was a pleasant sight to see him officiated like any other player. It was nice to see bowen dominated by wells on the post and manu owned by ron. i hate those two guys for that reason that they get bailed out every time just because they play for the spurs, now that they are not calling all those touch fouls manu is back to the earth again and bowen is finding it difficult to play defense because his grabs are now fouls and not physical defensive play.

But I wont be surprised if the spurs get home cooking and the refs go back to those silly fouls to bail them out.

As I had said many times before here spurs and the pistons will not be in the finals cos stern doesnt want to help them out to the finals this year.

 

[vladetomiller]

Great reply! I have been watching the NBA my whole life so I do remember a lot of the examples you give. You should consider making a video montage of the great playoff missed calls.

I maintain that the officiating actually gets worse in the playoffs and is at its worse with under 1 minute to go. At times I have just turned my TV off and said the h*ll with it because I get so disgusted with the calls. It is never this bad during the regular season.

How many regular season games get interesting and last into the last minute like the playoffs, most of them are over by the mid way through the fourth quarter

 

[hoopsfan]

How many regular season games get interesting and last into the last minute like the playoffs, most of them are over by the mid way through the fourth quarter

Adjustments can be made from game to game in a series. You don't playa different team every night.

 

[Kings113]

I saw a whole bunch of good regular season games this year.

 

[kupman]

Kup not sure I remember, (lack of sleep 26 hours or so) but are you a Kings fan? I ask this out of respect before I ask my next question...

I am a big Kings fan.......fire away with the question......I am a bit scared to read it.

 

[kupman]

Good points all, Gargy.

The microanalyzing and Monday-morning quarterbacking that goes on not only after every game but pretty much after every single play truly threatens to totally overwhelm the whole sport of basketball. On the whole, officials do a good job of interpreting a whole morass of rules on the fly while trying to allow the game to proceed.

I agree with what you are saying to a certain point. The thing that bugs me is that Nash was mauled......it does not take any microanalyzing to see it. The bigger point is that officials change the way they call the game when a playoff game is on the line. I hear some people support the change...i.e. "let the players decide the outcome." I personally think the game should be called exactly the same from start to finish. A foul is a foul and the zebras should have the courage to make the calls with the games on the line.

 

[D-Mass]

Anyone see Raja Bell clothesline Kobe tonight? I'd say a suspension is brewing, which is trouble for the Suns. If Bell isn't suspended, it will make Artest's suspension an even bigger pile of horse poop. Bell's hit was WAY worse...but since it was on Kobe, I got a sick enjoyment out of it...

 

[vj9999]

Kobe ejected!!!!!!!!!!

 

[D-Mass]

Kobe ejected!!!!!!!!!!

There IS a God...

 

[Variant]

Bell will definitely be suspended for that. Stupid move.

Thought that would fire up the Lakers, instead the Suns went on a 10-0 run and Kobe gets himself kicked out.

Gonna be an intense game 6!

 

[HndsmCelt]

Anyone see Raja Bell clothesline Kobe tonight? I'd say a suspension is brewing, which is trouble for the Suns. If Bell isn't suspended, it will make Artest's suspension an even bigger pile of horse poop. Bell's hit was WAY worse...but since it was on Kobe, I got a sick enjoyment out of it...

I have dam near made a career complaining about what a thug Raja Bell is... guess it's time to shut up.

 

[Variant]

Well, nice to hear Nash step up and say what needed to be said. I'd forgotten about Kwame getting off easy for his classless move earlier in the series.

Somehow I doubt the league lets the Suns get away with something on #8 though.

 

[mavsman]

Anyone see Raja Bell clothesline Kobe tonight? I'd say a suspension is brewing, which is trouble for the Suns. If Bell isn't suspended, it will make Artest's suspension an even bigger pile of horse poop. Bell's hit was WAY worse...but since it was on Kobe, I got a sick enjoyment out of it...

Couldn't agree more. If Bell ISN'T suspended for that blatant clothesline then I will be pissed @ David Stern and the NBA. Not only would that Artest suspension be unfair but I'd go as far as to say that the NBA has it's own agenda and wants certain teams to go further than the others.

 

[KevinMartin'sShotDoctor]

Bell should be out for the next game. I still think Kwame should have been suspended for jawing over Diaw (does that rhyme?), but such is life.

As for the blatant miss call list from earlier, one of my favorites of recent memory is Reggie Miller's blatant shove of Jordan before making a game winning three for the Pacers. (More impressive was that Jordan almost banked in a 40 footer at the buzzer.)

Certainly there are a few godawful calls per series (per game?), and every year, thankfully, there are a few legendary performances. (I still enjoy the memory of Van Exel with Dallas a few years ago.)

 

[Kev.in]

Raja Bell gets a head start on taking his boat and fishing gear out of storage.