pop...shut the up tonight!!
They have no excuse. They were up 20 pts late in the 3rd. They lost because they completely melted down and lost composure......not because of the refs.
pop...shut the up tonight!!
Huh. I thought there were some questionable calls in game 1.
I'm not saying it is the reason they lost - they have to look to their own play for that - but then . . .
How the is that any different than the Lakers in game 3? You think there were some questionable calls, and perhaps there were. But not enough to claim that they ruined the game.
One hopes for fair and balanced officiating WHEREVER they play. The problem with the league is that that really isn't happening on a regular basis. And really, given the history, LA fans should be excited about this particular line-up of officials for this game.
About the horrible refing from J. Crawford.
But its all good, because we will be celebrating a win.
Then the Lakers have no excuse either!
Thanks for making my point.
Wunderlich? Is that not the name of the NFL combine test?
We'll see about it being advantageous.
If form holds, Steve Javie is the lead official for Game 5 and Bavetta will have a potential Game 6 -- we can at least be pretty sure that Javie and Bavetta will work the next two games (if necessary) in this series, in some order. I think I'd prefer that Javie get Game 5, but that might just be me.
You might advise LakerLanny that officiating schedules aren't just arbitrary, though. I don't think he believes me!
Last edited by FromWayDowntown; 05-27-2008 at 11:33 AM.
It's funny that when Spurs fans complain about calls and insinuate that calls had an effect on the outcome of a game, they're whining, but when Lakers fans complain about calls and insinutate that those calls had an effect on the outcome of the game, they're making principled arguments about the inconsistencies and inequities of NBA officiating -- but definitely not whining.
And Lanny is just unearthing conspiracies that the rest of the world would never see if not for his objective analytical view of officiating.
This is a no lose situation for the Spurs.
If they win, they are tied 2-2 and its a series again.
If they lose, they can bellyache all summer about how Stern screwed them with "the crew."
Actually, I don't think you'd ever hear that from the Spurs themselves. Unlike the Zen Master, the Spurs haven't historically talked about officiating once the game ends.
And I can assure you that you won't hear it from this Spurs fan, either -- and many others. Unlike many of your Laker Brethren, a lot of us don't blame officiating for losses or credit it for wins. That's not universally true, but it's true to a larger extent than you'll likely ever give us credit for.
I haven't heard much whining about officiating crews from Phil or the Laker players since Shaq left. He was the one that openly whined.
You would never hear this from Gregg Popovich:
"The difference was foul shots. They had 35 attempts to our 12. That's ridiculous in a ballgame this hotly contested."
I'll grant you that such was the line from Phil in 2003, but that wasn't Shaq complaining about officiating.
Yeah, I can't believe they called that foul on Turiaf when he grazed Manu.
Like I said, all the Lakers need is a fairly called game. Make the calls consistent on both ends is all I ask for.
Too bad the refs do not understand that concept.
hopefully its not an ego showdown between Pop and Crawford
Crawford, IMO, was baiting Pop for a "T" with the finger pointing, etc. Call me conspiratorial, but Joey's calls, when he's doing a Spurs game, smack of partisanship for whoever the Spurs are playing! I seem to remember a call, several, in Dallas this season that really got me P.O.'d!
7.5 hours and counting! :O)
Call it comparatively advantageous. In that this lineup is of greater advantage to the Spurs, given recent history, than the alternative line up.
Especially if it forces them to play above the officiating, as you mentioned early on.
whining about the refs before the game starts? is this a mavericks board?
I agree, but that is about as likely as Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson showing up naked at my front door tonight with some good vodka and their funk on.
Ah yes, the excuse before the loss.
I fully expect to see this crew call a violation on the opening tip, thereby assuring that the team committing the violation has no chance to win Game 4.
Spurs notes: Here comes Joey!
It's the news every Spurs fan has dreaded — the team is fighting for its season tonight in Game 4, and blowing the whistle will be one Joey Crawford.
If the NBA wants to give the conspiracy theorists ammunition, this is certainly the way to do it. The pregame sports-talk chatter is sure to be full of comments such as, "See? The last thing the league wants is the Spurs back in the finals. They want Celtics-Lakers so bad, they can taste it. Otherwise, why would they assign Crawford to this game?"
Crawford's recent history with the Spurs isn't pretty, to say the least. To recap, he was suspended for last year's playoffs (which undoubtedly cost him big bucks) after throwing Tim Duncan out of a regular season game because he thought Duncan was laughing at him on the bench. Then in Game 5 against New Orleans, he T'd up Gregg Popovich between the first and second quarters over an argument over a delay of game warning in which Pop was essentially correct. The Spurs lost and admitted later they were rattled by the officiating, mainly the fact that the Hornets were shooting lots of free throws and they weren't.
For the record, Crawford, a.k.a. Lex Luthor, will have Joe Forte and Mark Wunderlich as his running mates tonight. So how do they stack up on the handy-dandy homers chart?
Well, the silver lining is, if we're gonna get Joey, it's best to get him at home. Statistically, he's a Top 10 homer — eighth on the chart to be exact. And since some of the folks ahead of him don't appear to be working the playoffs (although the top homer, Joe DeRosa, did Game 3 Sunday), this would look like a good break, absent his history with the Spurs.
Also, Wunderlich is ranked 19th and Forte 38th. Forte's only playoff brush with the Spurs this season was also Game 5 versus the Hornets; Wunderlich was on the crew for Hornets Game 2 (also a loss).
Here's hoping for a Game 3 replay — the Spurs blow the Lakers out and the refs don't matter. Except for Lakers fans, the last thing anyone wants (especially David Stern, I would think) is Crawford making a block/charge call against Duncan in the final seconds to decide the game.
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblog...es_joey_1.html
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