The Duncan Block

[tmtcsc]

Duncan to Harden :

YOU SHALL NOT PASS

Harden to his teammates :

I SHALL NOT PASS

[ViceCity86]

One of the best and most clutch block of Duncan's career

[BillMc]

Harden to his teammates :

I SHALL NOT PASS

[BillMc]

Tim better not retire. He's still a Top 5 (Top 3?) big in this league.

It's so fun to watch ancient Timmy, be better than prime Howard.

[tim_duncan_fan]

Wasn't trying to make that joke.

I didn't think you were.

[LoneStarState'sPride]

Harden to his teammates :

I SHALL NOT PASS

[SpurPadre]

Skip "MY Spurs" Bayless tweeted that he thinks we got away with one. ing tool.

[pgardn]

Tim better not retire. He's still a Top 5 (Top 3?) big in this league.

It's so fun to watch ancient Timmy, be better than prime Howard.

You are so mainstream.
He is so done.

-Just posting for our team oriented members

[TVI]

how about 53 fta to 24 fta......bull ....and they still lost......LOL!

Well, to be fair, 16 of those (by my count) were intentional fouls on Josh Smith in the 4th.

[marinoman]

The WORST thing for the Rockets was that they STOPPED PLAYING. There was 1.6 seconds left when we got the rebound. THEY QUIT.

meh, it was similar to when horry (with the lakers) missed the 3 down 2, D-Rob got the rebound with like 2 secs left.
Yea you should foul but your focus gets lost after that play

[UZER]

No, the block was bad, I'll give you that. Players walking off the court with time on the clock is just SAD. Down 1, they should have fouled. Even 2 makes leaves the game within a Harden or Ariza 3 of OT.

All they needed was Adam Morrison crying on the floor


It was all ball anyway but...It's Tim ing Duncan. 5 time champion, two time MVP, 3 time FMVP. He's earned the benefit of the doubt. Hes made that exact play time and time again through out his career. It's not like he kinda got arm, it was all ball.

and it's not like harden was blocked by Brian Cardinal. plus, harden is the nbas reigning flopper and HE didn't even complain.

Incoherent I know, but /rant

[ElNono]

It was not just the block, but the fact that he didn't knock it out of bounds, but instead calmly caught it, and dropped it to Danny to run out the clock...

Rockets players didn't even react, they didn't even know what hit them...

[heyheymymy]

Yeah Rockets didn't even try to foul. wtf? Duncan just wrecked them into a daze I guess.

[Darius Bieber]

DPOY tbh

[TimmyDuncan21]

Thanks for the support Spurs fans....you guys rock!!


- Tim Duncan

[exstatic]

meh, it was similar to when horry (with the lakers) missed the 3 down 2, D-Rob got the rebound with like 2 secs left.
Yea you should foul but your focus gets lost after that play

As many last second shots have fallen against us this year to force overtimes that we lost, they should've done it. We had scads of players with 4 and 5 fouls from hacking.

[TampaDude]

As many last second shots have fallen against us this year to force overtimes that we lost, they should've done it.

Maybe it was a good thing Timmy missed that layup. Otherwise we'd be up 3, Harden hits a 3 at the buzzer to force OT, and, well, you know how unkind OT has been to us this season.

A win is a win.

[littlecoyotecoin]

Clear foul but who cares

Stop perpetuating ignorance.


1) Clear foul by HARDEN, you mean, right, maybe? He was clearing out with his right elbow in Tim's chest/neck area before Tim ever comes into contact with the ball, much less Harden's arm. There is no clamoring by the Rockets (or in your case, Trailblazer) fans to have that foul called. It seems a much more difficult case, to me, to excuse that clear out, but it goes ignored in favor of the more superficial "He got him on the arm!" even though the foul by Harden preceded the block. In addition, it might even be argued that if Harden did not impede Duncan's progress with the clear out foul, Duncan would have been in an even better position to block the shot without having any incidental contact after the block at all. Harden's foul hampered Tim's ability. You should not get a reward when you don't come into the situation with clean hands. There is even a legal term for it. Sufficient reason for a "no call" all by itself.


2) Tim contacted the ball, despite protests from local announcers. Since the shot was blocked, the following contact on the arm becomes incidental contact left to the discretionary judgement of the officials to determine if it affected "follow through". Check the rule book. Someone posted the rule in another thread. Follow through on a previously blocked shot doesn't seem all that important, as if he were able to follow through normally with his arm, the ball had already been altered in its trajectory, and unimpeded follow through would, arguably (thus left to the discretion of the referee), not have likely guided the ball on its intended course. Even in slow motion replay, the referee has some plausible deniability with this reasoning. The incidental arm contact after the block could be deemed irrelevant to the shot going into the basket. The block, even without the arm contact, would have been sufficient to deny the ball going through the hoop. In real-time, all the referee needed to see was that Harden fouled Tim on the clearout with the right arm/elbow, AND got the shot blocked, before any further contact occurred. That should be enough to not blow a whistle, and it was.


3) Referees have often been reluctant to call fouls to put guys on the line to win games with bailout free-throws. Slow motion seems to make a case that the referees made an acceptable judgement call in this case. It is sad that so many fans and "experts" like Skip Bayless believe it was an "obvious" foul, instead of realizing that it is at least ambiguous, if not even the right call, or a potentially missed foul call on Harden.


I am a little shocked that they "got it right", in my opinion, as the rest of the game was so poorly officiated. Howard's use of elbows while hooking his defender, etc. were just plain ridiculous. Games where you watch a guy like Baynes get fouled out because he kept fouling Howard's elbow with his neck, head, chest, and ribs makes you want to puke sometimes. Baynes should have fouled out much earlier based upon that criteria. I saw Baynes (and other defenders) foul Howard's elbow some other times that the referees missed.

[Darkwaters]

Well, to be fair, 16 of those (by my count) were intentional fouls on Josh Smith in the 4th.

They're still free shots at the basket and free points if you can make them. Totally uncontested points. They took nearly 30 more FT's than the Spurs and still couldn't win. Thats pathetic.

[Drachen]

Well that was primarily due to Hack a Smith

Yeah, subtract about 20-22 from that total to get a clearer picture.

[littlecoyotecoin]

Yeah, subtract about 20-22 from that total to get a clearer picture.

Add back an unknown amount that would have been called on us during the offensive sets that would have ensued. Pop went to that for a couple of reasons, one of which being we were being called for bull fouls. We can't assume that ALL (edit) of those 10-11 posessions, by your count, would have been foul-less. On the contrary, we can probably assume that we would have continued to be called for fouls similar to those that partially inspired the strategy.

[Spurs 4 The Win]

Add back an unknown amount that would have been called on us during the offensive sets that would have ensued. Pop went to that for a couple of reasons, one of which being we were being called for bull fouls. We can't assume that none of those 10-11 posessions, by your count, would have been foul-less. On the contrary, we can probably assume that we would have continued to be called for fouls similar to those that partially inspired the strategy.

this, and it also makes the refs less apt to call fouls after we are done hacking because of the enormous disparity

[Killakobe81]

Great angle thought it was a foul on the NBATV live shots and initial replay refs got it right. Duncan vis amazing that one block ...
won the game ...
Made Spurs faves for the 2 seed ...
gave them a easier path to the WCF ...
If they can beat LeBron again probably the faves to repeat

One of my favorite recent Duncan plays probably the three he hit vs Phx in the playoffs is the only past prime big play I admire more ...( I love blocks was a Danny green type shotblocker)

[cd98]

It would've been a foul if Duncan got all arm or hit the arm on the shot. But he blocked the shot and then got incidental contact after the fact. Houston is used to Harden getting every call, so they are in a tizzy over this, but he has to learn to finish in that last shot if he wants to be a true playoff warrior.

[BillMc]

Stop perpetuating ignorance.


1) Clear foul by HARDEN, you mean, right, maybe? He was clearing out with his right elbow in Tim's chest/neck area before Tim ever comes into contact with the ball, much less Harden's arm. There is no clamoring by the Rockets (or in your case, Trailblazer) fans to have that foul called. It seems a much more difficult case, to me, to excuse that clear out, but it goes ignored in favor of the more superficial "He got him on the arm!" even though the foul by Harden preceded the block. In addition, it might even be argued that if Harden did not impede Duncan's progress with the clear out foul, Duncan would have been in an even better position to block the shot without having any incidental contact after the block at all. Harden's foul hampered Tim's ability. You should not get a reward when you don't come into the situation with clean hands. There is even a legal term for it. Sufficient reason for a "no call" all by itself.


2) Tim contacted the ball, despite protests from local announcers. Since the shot was blocked, the following contact on the arm becomes incidental contact left to the discretionary judgement of the officials to determine if it affected "follow through". Check the rule book. Someone posted the rule in another thread. Follow through on a previously blocked shot doesn't seem all that important, as if he were able to follow through normally with his arm, the ball had already been altered in its trajectory, and unimpeded follow through would, arguably (thus left to the discretion of the referee), not have likely guided the ball on its intended course. Even in slow motion replay, the referee has some plausible deniability with this reasoning. The incidental arm contact after the block could be deemed irrelevant to the shot going into the basket. The block, even without the arm contact, would have been sufficient to deny the ball going through the hoop. In real-time, all the referee needed to see was that Harden fouled Tim on the clearout with the right arm/elbow, AND got the shot blocked, before any further contact occurred. That should be enough to not blow a whistle, and it was.


3) Referees have often been reluctant to call fouls to put guys on the line to win games with bailout free-throws. Slow motion seems to make a case that the referees made an acceptable judgement call in this case. It is sad that so many fans and "experts" like Skip Bayless believe it was an "obvious" foul, instead of realizing that it is at least ambiguous, if not even the right call, or a potentially missed foul call on Harden.


I am a little shocked that they "got it right", in my opinion, as the rest of the game was so poorly officiated. Howards use of elbows while hooking his defender, etc. were just plain ridiculous. Games where you watch a guy like Baynes get fouled out because he kept fouling Howard's elbow with his neck, head, chest, and ribs makes you want to puke sometimes. Baynes should have fouled out much earlier based upon that criteria. I saw Baynes (and other defenders) foul Howard's elbow some other times that the referees missed.

Nice post. Well said.