NBA Conference Finals 2007

[Bloodline666]

Despite the fact that I'm rooting against them, I really have to give a lot of credit to the Jazz for making this a series. I think they played with a greater sense of urgency, knowing they'd be in a huge hole if they didn't.

Foul trouble sure does suck. Gotta be frustrating for Tim, as well as the rest of the team. I think Coach Pop gambled with keeping Tim in with 5 fouls, and I think that only delayed the inevitable. Of course, the Jazz had some foul trouble of their own, but the Spurs did not take advantage of it the way Utah took advantage of Duncan's foul trouble.

As for Utah, I think everyone that needed to step up big certainly did, Deron Williams in particular. I think the Jazz made the right choice back in 05 by trading up with the "Jail Blazers" in the draft and picking him with the third pick. Fisher stepped up big, as well. And though Okur sucked on the offensive end, he was a difference maker on guarding Duncan.

It'll be interesting to see how the Spurs respond in Game 4. Oh, by the way, the Jazz are 9-0 at home against the Spurs in the Playoffs. As far as head-to-head playoff series go, the Jazz lead the Spurs 3-0, and as far as playoff games, Jazz leads in that category 12-6 as of now (the latter of which includes this playoff series). These stats are all-time, and much of them account primarily for the Stockton-Malone era of the Jazz, when they were among the elite in the Western Conference. If the Jazz do not win this series, then those stats are a moot point. But I have a strange feeling that this won't be the last time the Spurs and Jazz will meet each other in the playoffs. The Jazz look like a team that will be in perennial playoff contention for years to come.

[Bloodline666]

While the majority of Utah's fans were generally well-behaved, a select few of them showed an absolute lack of class by throwing stuff on the court. The fans who did that need to be banned for life from all Utah Jazz home games, and have their season tickets revoked.

On another note, when was the last time you saw someone pick up his sixth foul AND second technical simultaneously? I can just see the locker room conversation now:

Derek Fisher: *walks in the locker room* Hi Coach Sloan!
Jerry Sloan: You got ejected for your second technical too? What the (expletive) were you thinking, Fisher?!
Fisher: Hey! It wasn't my fault! That Steve Javie dude got trigger-happy with the whistle!
Sloan: BULL! You just cost us the game, son!
Fisher: But really...it wasn't my fault! That Manu kid flopped, and Javie got trigger-happy with the whistle! And who are you to be talking? You, yourself, had a hand in our loss by arguing those calls vehemently and getting yourself ejected!
Sloan: That's it! YOU'RE BENCHED FOR GAME 5! Now sit down and shut up before I consider trading you this off-season!

In other news, I saw on SportsCenter that Kobe Bryant has made an ultimatum to the Lakers brass: either bring Jerry West back to the front office and give him "full authority", or he's gonna demand a trade. Apparently, Kobe feels that the Lakers front office does not have the best interests of the Lakers in mind. He feels that the only front office executive even remotely capable of bringing the Lakers back to championship contention is none other than Jerry West, which I think is definitely credible; not only is West, himself, an ex-Laker who won a championship with them as a player, but he is also a former Lakers GM who built two Laker dynasties. Though West is currently the GM for the Memphis Grizzlies, his contract with the organization expires at the end of June, and does not plan on returning there, and is possibly thinking of retiring as a GM. By the way, the silhouette you see on the NBA logo...just happens to be Jerry West. He's also the first-ever NBA Finals MVP, but he was on the losing team the year he won that award (the only player from an NBA Finals runner-up team to win that award).

[Kirobaito]

The fourth quarter of that game was one of the most appalling displays of officiating I've ever seen. What happened with smurfing Ginobili made it even worse. Is the idiot capable of NOT flopping? Did the Spurs even make a shot in the 4th quarter, other than Oberto's uncalled offensive basket interference? EDIT: Oh, yes... they hit two other shots.

Absolutely ridiculous. The incompetence of NBA officiating shines through once again. And conveniently in favor of the Spurs... once again.

[edczxcvbnm]

The fourth quarter of that game was one of the most appalling displays of officiating I've ever seen. What happened with smurfing Ginobili made it even worse. Is the idiot capable of NOT flopping? Did the Spurs even make a shot in the 4th quarter, other than Oberto's uncalled offensive basket interference? EDIT: Oh, yes... they hit two other shots.

Absolutely ridiculous. The incompetence of NBA officiating shines through once again. And conveniently in favor of the Spurs... once again.

Exactly why I am not looking forward to the NBA Finals. Detroit might not have balance issues...well...hamilton might but they sure whine alot more than the Spurs. If the NBA has wondered why its ratings have continued to drop each year this is a factor in my opinion. How can a casual fan take this kind of crap seriously. I have trouble taking it seriously.

[Bloodline666]

Well the Jazz were playing like crap during the game, so I feel the officiating only affected the margin of victory, and not who won the game. I feel that the technicals against Fisher were not warranted. That second technical on Fisher may have only been enough for a personal foul, since the contact was there. Now if the game was closer than it was, though, then the missed basket interference call on Oberto could've affected the game's outcome.

It's ironic that Spurs fans like myself were chanting "Javie Sucks" last year in the playoffs, yet, the Spurs heard that same chant on the road. Like I mentioned in the last playoffs thread, Steve Javie does have a history of screwing over the home team, not to mention the fact that he was one of ten NBA refs investigated for tax evasion a few years back. In fact, he's even ejected team mascots. Not to mention he is notorious for being trigger-happy with the whistle when it comes to calling technicals. Had Javie not been officiating, Derek Fisher, and probably Jerry Sloan, would not have been called for two technicals.

As for flopping, the only rule change I'm aware of that the NBA has ever made in response to it is adding the "block-charge semi-circle" underneath the basket back in 1997, as a means to cut down on defenders flopping underneath the basket (which is why a charging foul committed while the defender is inside that circle is either ignored, or called as a blocking foul). The only other flopping-related rule I'm aware of that exists is a FIBA rule that states that anyone caught flopping will be called for a technical foul. Such a rule does not exist in the NBA, so according to the letter of the law, flopping remains perfectly legal in the NBA. And as for the Spurs' flopping, I have to say that it is not a problem with just that team, but it is a league-wide problem. Even the Jazz, themselves, have gotten away with flopping in the playoffs.

And speaking of that FIBA rule against flopping, Rasheed Wallace seems to think that rule needs to be instituted in the NBA, because he was quoted as saying that Anderson Varejao's flop in Game 2 needs to be called for a technical foul (ironic coming out of Sheed's mouth, since he's the Human Technical Foul of the NBA; he regularly leads the league in that category).

[Kirobaito]

If technical fouls were called for flopping then Ginobili would regular miss 30 games a season.

[Bloodline666]

I'd also like to point out that there's gonna be flopping in the Finals, regardless of who the two teams that play there are. The Cavs' most notorious flopper is Anderson Varejao. I believe Kirilenko is the Jazz's top flopper. I shouldn't even need to tell you who the Spurs' top flopper is. And if, next season, they DO make flopping punishable by a technical foul call, I can tell you right now that Rasheed Wallace is gonna start flopping next season just to try and be the all-time leader in technical fouls.

I think the recent spike in international players coming to the league would account for most of the flopping going on in the NBA. Most of those players grew up in, or played professionally in, countries where "football" (soccer to us Americans) is the most prevailant sport. It should be noted that flopping is EXTREMELY prevailant in soccer. My best guess is, most of these international players saw their soccer heroes flop so much that they thought, "this is really cool! What would happen if we did this in the NBA? Would we get the foul call in our favor?" I'm fairly certain some of these international players even learned how to flop by playing soccer. Sure enough, look what happened? These same players are now taking what they learned from watching (or playing) soccer, and applying it to the NBA. As of right now, soccer refs and FIFA are actively trying to crack down on flopping in that sport by issuing yellow cards to any player caught flopping. While FIFA and FIBA have rules against flopping, it's still legal and part of the game in the NBA. I would have to say the exact opposite of flopping in the NBA would be Hack-a-Shaq (or rather, Hack-a-[insert bad free throw shooter's name here])

[Raistlin]

They could make Not Being Rasheed Wallace a technical foul, and Wallace would still lead that category.

Recently I turned from an NBA game to watch a baseball game. I don't watch baseball.

[Bloodline666]

Note to Utah: If you can't beat Manu's flopping, resort to Hack-a-Bruce. Despite his tenacious defense and mad 3-point shooting, he's bad at the free throw line. The only team I've ever seen do Hack-a-Bruce is the Dallas Mavericks.

[edczxcvbnm]

To me flopping isn't the problem so much that the refs actually give the call to the flopper. I also feel that flopping happens on both ends of the ball and not just when a defender falls over. I can't begin to call the number of times an offensive player has fallen to the ground to make it look like he was hack out of his brain...sometimes they were never touched. Dwayne Wade from the finals last year comes to mind.

The players are just taking advantage of poor officiating.

I also was not saying that the outcome of the game would have changed but when a game is called like that it doesn't help perception no matter how bad a team is playing.

As sad as it is poor officiating will always be a part of basketball but it has only gotten worse and worse and they continue to do nothing to fix it.

[Bloodline666]

I, like the rest of the Spurs faithful in my hometown, am excited to see the Spurs back in the Finals for a 4th time, possibly grabbing a 4th NBA title. Though I would've liked this game to be won by the Spurs under less favorable circumstances, since Deron Williams was playing with a bad ankle, not to mention the fact that Derek Fisher did not enter the game until the 2nd half due to his daughter having a follow-up to her eye cancer treatment all the way in New York (interestingly enough, that follow-up was scheduled weeks in advance, so there was no way of knowing ahead of time whether the Jazz would be facing elimination that day). I think the week-long rest for the Spurs will help them in the long-run, especially given the average age of the team.

And the saga in L.A. continues to take attention away from the playoffs. First, it's reported that Kobe either wants Jerry West back in the Lakers front office or he wants out. Then, he retracts that statement by saying it would be nice to have Jerry West back in the Lakers front office. Then, in an interview with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith (perhaps the most animated analyst in all of sports), he says point-blank that he in fact wants to be traded from the Lakers, and that there's nothing the Lakers organization can do to keep him a Laker. And now, he's retracted that statement as well. So I think this coming off-season is going to be very interesting. As for that saga, I'm gonna have to stay neutral on that, and I feel both sides were wrong. For starters, I feel Kobe has betrayed the trust of the Lakers by demanding this trade, because when Kobe was going through that rape trial in Colorado, the Lakers players (save for Shaq, obviously), coaching staff, and organization at large stood by Kobe through thick and thin, and for Kobe to make the remarks he made was a stab in the back to the organization. On the same token, though, when Kobe opted out of his contract back in 04 to test the free agency market before ultimately deciding to re-sign with the Lakers, he did so because he felt he was made a promise by the Lakers organization that they would rebuild the team into a championship contender around him. Well, three years later, the Lakers have one lottery pick and two consecutive first-round exits to show for that "rebuilding", so it tells me the Lakers betrayed Kobe's trust by doing a horrible job at rebuilding the team.

Oh, and if you were watching the post-game presentation of the Western Conference Championship trophy, when it was Bruce Bowen's turn to speak, it sure SOUNDED like he was being booed by his own team's home crowd. The fact is, the fans were NOT saying "boo", they were saying "Bruce." Bills fans did the same thing with Bruce Smith, and Rams fans did this with Isaac Bruce. So basically, if you're a pro athlete and your name just happens to have the word "Bruce" in it, your home crowd is gonna stretch out the name "Bruce" and make it sound like you're being booed when you're really not.

[edczxcvbnm]

Screw the Spurs. Death to them all.

On a much more awesome not tonights game 5 of the East Finals was a terrible 3 quarters of play due to horrendous officiating. Then in the 4th they realized that they couldn't keep calling the game the way they had been or there would be no players left. Then King James took over giving a huge performance of unstoppability. It was one of those great moments of a player truly taking over a game. Just amazing. Lets see if the Cavs can finish the job in game six.

[Bloodline666]

Well, this totally sucks. Tickets for Games 1 & 2 of the NBA Finals (since San Antonio has homecourt in the Finals, regardless of who advances by virtue of a better record than both Cleveland and Detroit) are supposed to go on sale tomorrow at noon Central time, and I can't even connect to TicketMaster's website, even after 13 hours. If this keeps up, I'm getting my tickets by phone.

Screw the Spurs. Death to them all.

Hah! We'll see who's talking at the end of the Finals!

[Kirobaito]

Well, this totally sucks. Tickets for Games 1 & 2 of the NBA Finals (since San Antonio has homecourt in the Finals, regardless of who advances by virtue of a better record than both Cleveland and Detroit) are supposed to go on sale tomorrow at noon Central time, and I can't even connect to TicketMaster's website, even after 13 hours. If this keeps up, I'm getting my tickets by phone.

Screw the Spurs. Death to them all.

Hah! We'll see who's talking at the end of the Finals!

Well, you can't be too sure they'll sell out anyway.

[Bloodline666]

Something tells me Antonio McDyess gets at least a one-game suspension for his flagrant 2 that he pulled off against Sideshow Bob, otherwise known as Anderson Varejao. And while Sideshow Bob over there is a known flopper, that flagrant was no flop at all; I saw McDyess' arm go right around Varejao's neck.

While McDyess was ejected in the 1st quarter for that (effectively "suspending" him for that game), the severity of the flagrant foul certainly warrants a suspension for at least the next game.