It was partially that, and partially the Celtics just committing mindbogglingly dumb fouls. I'm looking at you, Pietrus and Dooling. Keyon Dooling somehow managed to commit 6 fouls in 15 minutes. How do you even do that? Or Greg Stiesma committing 4 fouls...IN 5 MINUTES. The Celtics bench players somehow committed 17 fouls in 52 minutes. That's one every 3 minutes, which is incredible.
I think Steimsma committed 4 fouls in 3.5 minutes. And how many of Doolings fouls were And1's? At least 3. if you know the refs are being tickytacky, back off!
Boston figured fouling and putting Maimi on the line was their best defense. Bill Simmons will not stop whining about how tough it is to win playing 5 on 8.
Sure, if Rajon Rondo scores over 40 points while looking like the best jump-shot shooter on the court. I think part of the logic was sure, you don't want Pierce to foul out...but who really cares about Keyon Dooling and Michael Pietrus? The fact is that even with homecourt advantage, Boston needs something anomalous to happen for a win. If there's a bad game by LBJ or Wade, sure, they can take it. If someone on the Celtics goes off like Rondo did, yeah. In Game 2, they had multiple such anomalies (RR on fire, terrible FT shooting by the Heat) and still couldn't quite pull it off.
I just read a good point on ESPN. In addition to not taking it to the hoop, what do you expect the refs to do when you announce that the other team needs to "hit the deck".
Also, Lebron and Wade intentionally drew a bunch of fouls with their little up-fake/jump into the defender moves. It's kind of cheap, but when you're a superstar who can get into the lane very easily but can also shoot it from the midrange (like Jordan, for example), you're going to get a TON of those calls. Pietrus was sagging off so he didn't get beat, which meant he had to lunge forward to contest shots -- if you're lunging forward, refs are going to call that.
Ref a fair and impartial game based on what happens on the floor, not what is said at a press conference? *shrug*
The NBA was supposed to crack down on that, and it has, but it's still a valuable offensive tool. Youre not supposed to launch yourself into the defender, but if they come down on you, its a foul. Ive seen them call that and the nocall on the straight up and down defender rule a lot more this year.
You don't think any official in any sport isn't made aware by the league or their boss about the potential for something to happen during a game? Im not saying thats why you call fouls in the 4th Quarter, but early on, to set the tone, I think it absolutely has an effect. I said im not impartial enough to judge, but was the game unfairly officiated? I didnt think so.
My only qualm was with one specific call in OT, and it was the missed headshot that Rondo received on a layup (which then led to a Heat rebound and transition dunk). But missed calls happen. I didn't feel like there was any particular bias.
That hit was just as hard as Psycho T's hit on Wade a series before. It should have been something. I'm not even going to point out the MMA kick Wade went up with during that drive on Garnett in OT.
That one was bad (though not nearly as bad as the Hansborough foul), largely for the reasons you just mentioned -- it definitely impeded him from making the layup, and it also affected his ability to get back on the defensive end. Huge missed call there, no question about it.
Guys, everyone knows the NBA has a vested interest in play-off outcomes, and will thus tell their refs to call the game accordingly. This really shouldn't shock anyone who has seen Game 6 of the 2002 Kings-Lakers series, the entire 2006 Miami-Dallas Final, read Tim Donaughy's statements, or simply thinks about this in terms of economics. The NBA will make tens of millions more dollars with Miami making the Finals instead of Boston. Ergo, the refs will slightly favor the Heat with calls. It doesn't have to be a huge, blatant bias, like the ridiculous ending to Game 3 of the Thunder-Lakers this year, which even Boston Billy called out. After all, the Heat and Celtics are closely matched. No, it just has to be a small amount of favoritism, which, over the course of a series, is enough to swing 1 or 2 games. And that's the difference between winning and possibly losing a series for the Heat. (Who I like more than the Celtics, by the way) Again, this shouldn't be news for any seasoned NBA fan. As Donaughy correctly noted, the NBA is entertainment, not an impartial sporting competition.
Ive always been a Wade fan, but he doesnt that shit constantly and gets away with it. He and other stars drive knee out and push off and the defender gets called for just being there, its terrible and that one was particularly egregious. But its not worth talking about, unlike the Rondo call, cause thats NEVER gonna get called.
Orlando Woolridge Dead at 52. <a class="postlink" href="http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/id/7996539/former-notre-dame-fighting-irish-chicago-bulls-player-orlando-woolridge-dead-52" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/ ... ge-dead-52</a>
Ryan Hollins puts me in mind of that one kid on the end of every high school team's bench that only gets to play because it's senior night. How could JaJuan Johnson be worse than this dipshit?
The story of that game was horrible officiating. I've never seen more reversed/overturned calls in 1 game. Bad charge/block calls, bad offensive foul calls. The refer looked scared and indecisive. Too bad.
Yeah, it's kinda blowing my mind that the series was a cunt hair from an elimination game in Boston's favor. I can't complain too terribly though: splitting OT games home and home is better than expected. This made me laugh: