Considering that Wade delivered a flying elbow to Stephenson, Battier kneed Hibbert Sagat style in the balls, and Cole dick punched West without any suspensions and at least 2 no calls (can't remember if Cole got whistled or not), I have no sympathy for any Heat fan who complains about the refs.
Tim Duncan is getting divorced... <a class="postlink" href="http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/9310930/tim-duncan-san-antonio-spurs-divorcing-wife-12-years" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2013/st ... e-12-years</a> Please let him shack up with some hot 22 year old so all the morality wonks can lose their collective minds.
I love how everyone is so surprised LeBron got fouled, but the league had to do it. 1) Stern had to put the hammer down of "If LeBron can get fined, anyone can get fined." Also, its only $5K, its basically a verbal admonishment. LBJ is probably upset he got called out, but they probably spent that much at the clubs in Miami a few days ago. I'm guessing Amy Duncan got tired of that subtle pretentiousness.
Oh, its been bad on both sides. Im not complaining about bias, just overall quality. Wade's foul got upgraded to a flagrant after the fact as well. My main complaint is the showboat/Look at Me attitude of the refs. Its not just 1 or 2 guys and its not just in the Heat & Pacers series either. Hibbert walks every time he touches the ball. He shuffles his feet all over the place. There have been a lot of pushoff & ward off calls that could have been made on both sides. Theres way too many calls being made closer to half court than the rim.
Maybe its cause Lebron has been allowed to create a new way to travel by calling it his crab dribble, they are allowing Hibbert to develop the Pawnee Shuffle. But your last point is spot on. Calls just to make calls that have no real effect on the play are dumb.
Re: Re: The Association: 2012-2013 Maybe it's just me but traveling is a huge part of why I can't get into watching the NBA. Everyone walks all the fucking time, nobody gets called for it. I know it's getting just as bad in college but for fucks sake it's a pretty big rule in the game that is almost universally ignored at this point. The officials have been terrible on both sides, fucking sick and tired of Heat fans bitching about it. Nothing would make me happier than to see them lose.
Re: Re: The Association: 2012-2013 The amount of steps guys get away with is ridiculous. I understand it improves the aesthetic quality of the game, but it looks ridiculous. That being said, these guys can cover huge amounts of space in 1 or 2 steps because of their size and athleticism. Unless Ray Allen or Shane Battier start to put it together, the Heat are gonna have a tough time. And its not that the Heat cant rebound, they cant box out. Its a lost art. My old HS coach is yelling at them from his grave: PUT YOUR ASS ON SOMEBODY.
I'm always really hesitant to take these sorts of claims at face value, because the average viewer actually has a very poor grasp of what these athletes are capable of doing in 2.5 steps, and of what qualifies as a "step" in NBA parlance. A lot of people base their opinion on their experience playing basketball, which ignores that they are not a professional athlete and they did not necessarily play under NBA rules. For example, I've seen players (specifically, Kobe Bryant) go from halfcourt to a dunk without traveling on one dribble. And people often don't account for the fact that a hopstep is one step, despite being with both feet. Does the average fan know what it means to gather the ball, and at what point in that process you're supposed to start counting steps? It's really hard, in hearing someone discuss traveling, to tell how much attention the person is actually paying to their feet (because really, who watches feet?) and also their level of understanding of what is and is not a travel. Not saying you guys personally don't know what's up, but a lot of internet traveling accusations fail under closer scrutiny. Without specific examples and tape, this conversation gets very boring because it becomes "NO U DUM HE TRAVELED" vs. "NO U" very rapidly.
Also important is that the number of steps somebody takes isn't what determines a travel. As far as I understand it. Once you've established a pivot foot, you're allowed to take as many steps with the other foot as you like. You may also lift the pivot foot, provided you rid yourself of the ball before you put it down again -- that's where the old "two steps" rule comes in -- a player stops dribbling, establishes a pivot foot with one step, steps forward with the other, then lifts the pivot foot while shooting. It gets trickier to parse, however, when the player stops dribbling with a hop step (in which case either foot can be the pivot) or goes into a hop step off of one pivot foot, in which case neither can be reestablished. Lebron's crab dribble is right in that middle ground where it's not entirely clear whether he should have both pivot feet available or neither. Add to the fact that he's doing this at ridiculous speeds, and the "did he travel" conundrum gets trickier. There's a lot of feet shuffling when people catch perimeter passes, but there's also a ton of little pushes, so I imagine it balances out on average. There's also weird stuff like: If your pivot foot slides, but you were kind of pushed, should the ref call a travel/foul or neither?
Here's a pretty good clip of the play. It looks pretty obvious to me that he has both hands on the ball and his right foot on the ground. Then he jumps back, both feet off the ground, and lands with both feet. Looks like a pretty textbook up-and-down call to me. You're not allowed to put both feet on the floor on a step-back. Also, he changed direction twice and the ball only hit the ground once.
Actually, I'm not sure on that one. As per the NBA: I see gather, right foot, dribble, left foot, right foot. At which point he is stopped. As per the rarely enforced pre-2009 rules, a travel. Now I'm not sure.
Pacers got beat straight up tonight. But what the hell does one of the Heat have to do to get thrown out or suspended? A double T when Hansbourgh gets checked then shoved without physically reacting? I'd assume he said some sort of racial slur, but birdman is white. Are they giving out T's for saying mother fucker now? Cause I saw Lebron yell that shit after a three. I hope Vogel throws in some scrubs just to do damage next game.
1 - Wade should have been ejected/suspended. 2 - Anderson should have been ejected and may be suspended. Dumbass went after the wrong guy. George pushed him in the back, not Beaker. 3 - Explain to me the triple Technicals on the Mario/West/UD scrum. West walked 10' over towards Chalmers to get in his face. UD stepped in. No pushing, minimal contact. Why not just break it up? What did Chalmers do to get a T? I will say the reffing was better than it had been. Lots of contact at the rim that wasnt called on both sides. What does Hibbert need to do to get a foul?
Ultimately this is kind of who Birdman is. Reminds me of Granger last year, consciously trying to make the Heat lose their cool. He's far from the first guy to play this role (Rodman? KG? Bird? Bowen? Oak? Reggie Evans? Hansborough himself?)
Nothing would have made me happier than Tyler "I am a whiny bitch" Hansbrough getting punched in the face. That would have been great.
Birdman getting suspended is actually an important storyline in a potential closeout game of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Pacers doesn't deserve to win this game. Miami playing like shit in this 4th quarter and they can't get a non retarded shot? Then Mike Miller hits two 3s, and David West gets 2 buckets, but they just shit on a 14 point lead.
That's the scary thing for the other teams in the Eastern conference going forward. Indiana hasn't actually been playing as well as they could be. They've had a lot of stupid turnovers and mental mistakes, they have a lot of trouble getting decent shots out of their half-court sets, and their bench is horrible, yet they're hanging with a Miami team that many people expected would roll to the finals without a loss.