McDonald: Blown Call Provides Spurs A Needed Bit Of Luck

[duncan228]

Blown call provides Spurs a needed bit of luck (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Blown_call_provides_Spurs_a_needed_bit_of_luck.htm l)
Jeff McDonald

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It was one of those classic, 3-2-1 schoolyard moments, frozen in time, the kind a shooter wants to watch over and over again.

Michael Finley didn't bother.

His 3-pointer from the right arc with 1.3 seconds to go was enough to beat the Kings on Sunday night at Arco Arena. Even if it didn't beat the shot-clock.

Replays showed Finley's game-winner, which gave the Spurs a much-needed 95-92 victory, didn't leave his hands until the 24-second ticker expired.

“The great ref crew said it counted,” said Finley, who added he had not yet seen a replay. “So we'll take it.”

The officials' knee-jerk reaction was all that mattered. By NBA rule, they cannot use replay to reverse such a call.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich did look at the replay after the game. He admitted the shot should not have counted.

“It looked like the ball was still in his hands,” Popovich said.

No matter.

Finley's shot went in the box score as the game-winner for the Spurs who, with Manu Ginobili back home and Tim Duncan watching from the sidelines, were happy with any “W” they could muster.

Tony Parker, stuck in attack mode, had 25 points and nine assists. Roger Mason Jr. added 22 points, including five 3-pointers, as the Spurs rallied from a 16-point deficit to steal the victory.

With it, the Spurs (52-28) re-established a three-way tie with Houston and Portland for third through fifth places in the wild Western Conference.

“We'll take it,” Mason said. “With Manu out for the season, and with Tim out tonight, we'll take a win any way we can get it.”

Duncan sat out the front end of the West Coast back-to-back so Popovich could save him for tonight at Golden State. Kurt Thomas started in Duncan's place, and turned in a yeoman-like effort — nine points and 13 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass.

He helped the Spurs weather a season-high 24 points from Spencer Hawes, Sacramento's 7-foot-1 center.

Even without Duncan and Ginobili, it was a game the Spurs could not afford to lose. The Kings were without leading scorer Kevin Martin.

This was a team so disinterested two nights earlier in Los Angeles that the Clippers — of all people — were questioning Sacramento's commitment to the rest of the season.

Midway through the second quarter, it looked as if the Kings (16-64) were prepared to shred Popovich's best-laid plans.

A 17-2 Kings run, during which they missed just one field goal, helped spot Sacramento a 13-point lead. By then it was too late to ask Duncan to slip on his No. 21 jersey.

Sacramento's edge would get as big as 16 before the Spurs began to steady themselves. They probably salvaged the game in the final 2:17 of the second quarter, closing the half with an 11-2 spurt that took them into half down just 61-54.

“They came out with a lot of juice, so give them credit for that,” Popovich said. “Give us credit for hanging in there.”

When Parker spun past Beno Udrih for a layup with 4:07 to go in the game, it put the Spurs ahead 87-86 and marked their first lead since 2-0.

It was part of a horrific night for Udrih, who went 1 for 12 from the field and constantly watched Parker, his former teammate, zip past him.

Udrih had two jumpers in the final 1:06 that could have broken the 92-92 tie. He missed both, setting the stage for Finley to not beat the shot clock.

Finley, to that point, had barely been better than Udrih. He was 2 of 10 from the field. His luck, and the Spurs', was about to change.

Parker found him on the right arc with the shot clock winding down. As Finley released it, and time apparently stood still, the Spurs saw what the officials saw.

“I saw it go in,” Thomas said. “That's all that counts.”

[EricB]

When Parker spun past Beno Udrih for a layup with 4:07 to go in the game, it put the Spurs ahead 87-86 and marked their first lead since 2-0.




First lead since 27-25.....

[duncan228]

Updated.

Finley’s controversial 3 leads Spurs past Kings (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2009041223&prov=ap)
By Greg Beacham

Michael Finley might have been the only person in Arco Arena who didn’t realize his winning 3-pointer almost certainly didn’t leave his hands before the 24-second clock expired. He was too busy catching Tony Parker’s pass and launching it to pay attention to the red 00 above the hoop.

Kings guard Bobby Jackson certainly saw it. He also couldn’t help noticing that the team with four championships and 12 straight playoff berths got the break, and the franchise with the NBA’s worst record got one more reason to hate this season.

Finley’s 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds left counted despite a fairly obvious shot-clock violation, and San Antonio came from behind for a 95-92 victory over Sacramento on Sunday night.

“It was just a bad call, period,” said Jackson, who scored 11 points. “I think at the end of the day, you’ve got to call the game the way it’s supposed to be called. We fought … and that’s all we can do. It comes down to one last call, and it was in the refs’ hands. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

Parker had 25 points and nine assists—including the pass to Finley for the winner that probably wasn’t—as the Spurs moved into a tie with Houston atop the Southwest Division with two games left despite keeping Tim Duncan out of uniform to rest his sore knees.

If the Spurs (52-28) hang on to win the division title and the superior playoff seeding that goes with it, they’ll fondly look back on a shot that even coach Gregg Popovich thought shouldn’t have counted.

“I looked on the film, and it looked like it was still in his hand,” Popovich said. “I didn’t study it, but I looked real quickly, and it looked like it was still in his hands.”

With Duncan sidelined, the NBA-worst Kings led for most of the night, but Parker and Roger Mason both scored to tie it in the final minutes before the winner by Finley, who missed his first five 3-point attempts of the night before hitting the last.

“Catch and shoot, that’s what I saw,” said Finley, who had nine points. “Tony made a great play penetrating, and he kicked it out to me. … The great refereeing staff we had said it counted, so we’ll take it.”

Referee Dan Crawford’s crew explained that shot-clock violations are unreviewable to irate Sacramento coach Kenny Natt, whose Kings lost their eighth straight and 15th in 17 games. Sacramento finished its Arco schedule with the worst home winning percentage in franchise history at 11-30 (.268).

Although Natt was confident the buzzer beat Finley, the interim coach knew no game really comes down to a single shot.

“We just got taken advantage of on the offensive boards,” Natt said of the 14 offensive rebounds allowed by Sacramento. “Kurt Thomas was really effective in keeping the ball alive for them. We gave them too many opportunities, and they took advantage of that.”

Spencer Hawes scored a career-high 24 points for the Kings, who played without star Kevin Martin for the sixth straight game because of a sore left ankle. After the game, Natt said Martin won’t play in Sacramento’s two season-ending road contests.

Even with postseason positioning at stake, the Spurs gave Duncan the night off. Duncan has been hobbling for months, occasionally missing a game or leaving early, as he did in last Wednesday’s loss to Portland, but he’ll be back for Monday night’s game at Golden State.

Mason scored 22 points and Thomas had 13 rebounds for the Spurs, who are just 9-8 since March 10, allowing Houston to move ahead of them in the division race.

The Kings, who lost their fifth in a row to San Antonio, finish the season with a road trip to Denver and Minnesota, while the Spurs host New Orleans on Wednesday after their trip to Oakland.

Francisco Garcia scored 12 points for the Kings, and Andres Nocioni had 11. Beno Udrih capped his 1-for-12 performance against his former San Antonio teammates with three misses in the closing seconds.

Notes

Hawes, the University of Washington product whose all-around development has been one of the Kings’ few positives this season, surpassed his previous career high on a baseline jumper with 3:50 to play. He grabbed eight rebounds while going 10-for-18. … Udrih spent his first three NBA seasons with San Antonio, winning two championship rings before joining the Kings as a free agent in November 2007. Before the game, the Slovenian guard went to the Spurs’ bench to hug Popovich. … Drew Gooden, who spent 12 days with the Kings earlier this season after a trade with Chicago, had nine points and five rebounds for the Spurs, who signed him after Sacramento released him to save money.

[duncan228]

Sactown Royalty.

It's Magic (http://www.sactownroyalty.com/)
by Ziller

That the referees counted Michael Finley's three good without the benefit of replay ... that's perfect. It seemed like a joke when the refs moved on with the game, and Randy Brown had to tell Andres Nocioni to go to the huddle. When Shareef Abdur-Rahim asked Danny Crawford, "That was late. Watch the replay." "We can't," Crawford replied. "Oh," said Abdur-Rahim. I mean, it seemed like everyone was like -- "Ok, joke's over, review it and reverse it." Like Crawford would keep a straight face walking up to Kenny Natt ... and then pull out a gun with daisies coming out of the barrel. "HA! HA! You shoulda seen the look on your face! Of course we'll review it."

Sadly, as has been the case this entire season, that was no joke.

For those that missed it, game tied at 92. S.A. ball, roughly 2.5 seconds separate the game and shot clocks. Sacramento's defense stifles Tony Parker's penetration (a true rarity), and T.P. kicks out to Michael Finley with one tick left on the shot clock. Finley rises ... the shot clock goes off ... Finley fires, in. Crawford, the nearest referee, is watching Finley's feet. He counts it good. The other two refs don't dispute it. Review shows the shot clock expired by at least a half-second. No matter, as a shot clock play isn't reviewable by the refs. The Kings get the ball with 1.3 seconds, and Nocioni airballs the wing three.

It's a sad story only made brighter by the fact that ...

... the Kings will have the most ping pong balls on May 19.

[tp2021]

Before the game, the Slovenian guard went to the Spurs’ bench to hug coach Gregg Popovich. :wtf

[EricB]

tp2021

I don't think theres any bad blood there...

[tp2021]

I shoulda added a :lol for good measure probably

[Matchman]

YtgYv5Wea_E

[GSH]

You know, with all the people commenting (and bitching) about the "controversial call", I haven't seen anyone mention the fact that it still would have just sent the game to OT if the call had gone the other way. The Spurs outscored the Kings 20-16 in the third, and 21-18 in the fourth (without that last 3-pointer). I like our chances in overtime.

Too many people acting like the Kings were ahead before that shot.

[EricB]

I don't know about overtime.

Parker was running out of gas along with Mason, and with Finley not having it along with some others, it just was a good thing the game ended when it did.

[Thomas82]

Well, we got the win we needed, and they got the lottery spot they needed. It was a win-win for both teams.

[Blackjack]

Kurt Thomas started in Duncan's place, and turned in a yeoman-like effort — nine points and 13 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass.

Talk about an understatement.

Kurt Thomas is a MAN, and he don's the 40!


He helped the Spurs weather a season-high 24 points from Spencer Hawes, Sacramento's 7-foot-1 center.

7-foot-1???


“Catch and shoot, that’s what I saw,” said Finley, who had nine points. “Tony made a great play penetrating, and he kicked it out to me. … The great refereeing staff we had said it counted, so we’ll take it.”

:lmao

Finley deserves some props for the amount of energy and focus he played with on the defensive-end tonight, as well.


“It was just a bad call, period,” said Jackson, who scored 11 points. “I think at the end of the day, you’ve got to call the game the way it’s supposed to be called. We fought … and that’s all we can do. It comes down to one last call, and it was in the refs’ hands. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

Can't blame the players or fans for being pissed, actually kind of feel for them, but I'll take a W anyway we can get it.

Besides, with some of the bad foul calls, questionable jumpballs, no-calls on intentional fouls, half-court-heaves, and clock-errors the Spurs have had to deal with over the past couple of months, it's nice to see them be on the other end of it.

Hopefully, as Pop likes to say, "The worm's turned." :smokin

[Yorae]

Hmmm, the finley man-crush spreading over to the refs.......

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

good for the Nuggets :smokin I'm hoping the Spurs can somehow still get the 3rd seed, just in case the Nuggets do actually get past the 1st round as the 2nd seed :lol

[Lady M]

when the buzzer happend the ball was in the air
the referee can't do anything, they don't watch the clock they only listen the buzzer

[Spursmania]

good for the Nuggets :smokin I'm hoping the Spurs can somehow still get the 3rd seed, just in case the Nuggets do actually get past the 1st round as the 2nd seed :lol

Yep, because without one of the big three and an ailing Duncan,this might be the best chance Denver has of getting past us in a playoff series. Based on those odds alone, it's Denver's series to choke away.

Realistically, the bliss will be short-lived though because Denver won't win a ring this year either. Gotta start somewhere though, and Thanks to Chauncey the team looks fired up and ready to roar this season.:toast

[Indazone]

What now Spursfans? Spurs and Rockets are now tied again.

[mytespurs]

Spurs needed this win and were fortunate to get it. But the fact that this team is struggling to beat teams like Sacramento doesn't bode well for their tenure in the playoffs. Depending on who they play, it will be most fortitious if they manage to get out of the first round.

[Indazone]

No doubt, our last two games are tough. Rockets have the Hornets and Nuggets while the Spurs have the Warriors and the Hornets.

[Loquacist]

Look, the score was tied 92-92. So what if the shot didn't count - the Spurs would have gone to OT.


It's not as if the Spurs were trailing 92-90 and would have lost if Finley's shot didn't count. The Kings were not exactly "robbed."

[Spursfan092120]

No doubt, our last two games are tough. Rockets have the Hornets and Nuggets while the Spurs have the Warriors and the Hornets.
No matter what, I wish ya luck...though I hope your team goes down. :) But I'd love a first round series against the Rockets..that would be great.

[Spursfan092120]

Look, the score was tied 92-92. So what if the shot didn't count - the Spurs would have gone to OT.


It's not as if the Spurs were trailing 92-90 and would have lost if Finley's shot didn't count. The Kings were not exactly "robbed."
true...good theory. Anyone who thinks the Spurs wouldn't have regrouped and probably pulled it out in overtime against an obviously inferior team, is fooling themselves.

[Spork KIller]

Cheater mother fuckers

[ElNono]

Cheater mother fuckers

LOL... How's fishing in Arizona? Catch something yet?

[completely deck]

Spurs needed this win and were fortunate to get it. But the fact that this team is struggling to beat teams like Sacramento doesn't bode well for their tenure in the playoffs. Depending on who they play, it will be most fortitious if they manage to get out of the first round.

Sounds like you didnt watch the game. We were without Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. Really hard to lose with 2 of your 3 stars not on the court.