Only chance the Mavs have is if the refs make the teams go back to playing pussy ball.
Well, they have NO chance if they keep firing up bricks and airballs on wide open jumpers.
I don't know what will happen the rest of the way in this series. Either team can still take it. But, I DO know that if the Mavs win the series Spurs fans on this forum will find many reasons why they didn't REALLY win the le. I hope I get to read them because that will mean the Mavs won.
Hahaha... Stackhouse grazed Shaq? What a ing joke!
Its kinda sad that certain Spurs posters are happy and excited that Stackhouse got suspended. What is up with that?
I want to see both teams play with their full squads. If Dirk and Howard have an 'average' night, Dallas wins game 5.
There are a lot of "haters" on here- but a LOT MORE true basketball fans who express intelligent opinions based on more than pure "homerism".
I just try to ignore the smack-talkers while greatly enjoying the intelligent majority.
"LOL...ok very nice NBA. How about suspend Dirk for Game 6....." Sounds like an excellent idea to me!
Hmmm...just read this written by one of the Spurs' own heroes (who actually played in the NBA unlike the rest of us on this forum):
Flagrant foul-up
By Steve Kerr, Yahoo! Sports
June 16, 2006
Jason Williams may have made his most influential play of the NBA Finals in Game 4 – albeit unwittingly – when he waited for Shaquille O'Neal to catch up to him, fed him for a possible dunk and then watched as Jerry Stackhouse clocked O'Neal on his way to the rim.
At the time, Miami Heat coach Pat Riley was upset with his point guard, who had a clear path to the hoop for an easy layin. But now that Stackhouse has been suspended for Game 5 by the league for his flagrant foul on Shaq, Riley might want to call Williams and congratulate him. The Heat already had plenty of momentum, but now they have a golden opportunity to take a 3-2 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks.
Stackhouse is Dallas' toughest player, and for a team that was physically manhandled in Thursday's 98-74 defeat, his loss is crucial. He is the Mavs' leading scorer off the bench and a guy who is always in the game at crunch time. In his absence, Marquis Daniels should step in and play some major minutes for Avery Johnson.
As for the NBA's decision to suspend Stackhouse, I don't believe the league made a good decision. Yes, Stackhouse's foul was hard, but he raced back on defense, caught up to O'Neal and fouled him hard to force him to make two free throws. That's what you're supposed to do as a player, particularly in the playoffs. There are no easy baskets, especially when the guy you're fouling is such a poor free-throw shooter.
Was the foul malicious? No. Was it cheap? No. Can you compare it to Raja Bell's clothesline foul of Kobe Bryant that also warranted a one-game suspension? Not a chance.
What about Jason Terry's punch of Michael Finley in the Western Conference semifinals? That was a punch, which is an automatic suspension – no questions asked. Even the suspension of Udonis Haslem for firing his mouthpiece at referee Joey Crawford during the first round made sense because the officials have to be protected. And James Posey's blatant crosscheck of Kirk Hinrich in Game 3 of the Bulls-Heat series warranted at least a one-game suspension, if not two. Posey lined up Hinrich and made a premeditated hit on him while he was dribbling out on the floor, not driving for a layup.
The one controversial play in the playoffs that did not result in a suspension, ironically enough, was when Reggie Evans grabbed Chris Kaman's, uh, nuggets, so to speak, in the Denver-Clippers series. Evans got off with a $10,000 fine. Go figure. All I know is that NBA fans deserve to see the two best teams battle it out for the championship with the best players on the floor.
If Stackhouse punched somebody or pulled a Raja Bell, by all means, he should be sidelined. But to suspend him for a hard foul in the NBA Finals? The league should have fined Stackhouse – say $10K, like Evans – but made a distinction between what he did and the premeditated, dirty plays that Bell and Posey made.
Steve Kerr is Yahoo! Sports' NBA analyst. Send him a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Well said by Kerr...
cuban is calling now the refs, so watch out! hahahhaha!!!!! idiot cuban!!
all the mavs fan are like a toilet paper! hahahhha! ur basketbal is so boring to watch!!!
hahahaha
Reggie Evans grabbed Chris Kaman's, uh, nuggets, so to speak
Why do you always post in back-to-back pairs???
Engrish mofo...do you speak it??
hahahha! back to back bad ass!!! u!!! hahhaha!!!
next game: dirky nowitky will be suspended too!!! hahhahahha!
What's done is done. Whining and debating it to death does the Mavs no good. I think it's borderline. You can make a case either way. I'm sure AJ's comments yesterday are for the effect of creating an us against the world bunker mentality to get this team psychologically ready for a tough Game 5. His comments aren't about winning a debate but firing up his team. Raja Bell was absolutely in the wrong, much more so than Stack in this case or Terry's nutpunch, but the Suns responded in the right way.
No question it hurts Dallas. Stack is streaky but he's always in when Dirk catches a breather to run and initiate the offense. His 30 minutes will be divided up between Griffin, Daniels and Van Horn.
That doesn't mean Dallas can't beat Miami without him. They certainly didn't get anything from him in G3. What's got to change for Dallas more than anything else is Dirk has to step up and they have to get Wade under control as best as they can. In Dallas, Wade was held to 26 points on 39% shooting. The Mavs can easily live with that. In Miami, he's getting 39, 10 and 3 on 47%. That's why the Mavs are losing, along with getting intimidated out of going to the basket and settling for jumpers. Stack being out creates an opportunity to Daniels, who hasn't played because AJ doesn't trust him but out of necessity he's going to get minutes in G5. He's a slasher that can go to the basket. They'll need that to attack Miami when the Heat go into a zone.
A lot of credit is due to Haslem and Posey for bodying up Dirk and trying to take him out of his comfort zone. It's the Bowen model of defense and the refs for the most part are allowing the contact. But the problem is just as much in Dirk's head as anything else. He got the better of Bowen eventually and he shouldn't have any problems now. He made tremendous strides this year in developing a postup game, responding to physicality and becoming mentally tough. There's no way Dallas beats SAS without him playing at an unreal level. But the next 2-3 games are going to define Dirk's career. He's still a guy who can be kept off-balance and out of his comfort zone for a game or two, but for a whole series? He threw up two stinkers in the San Antonio series and he was terrible in G4 against PHX, but he's turned in four straight subpar outings in a row in the Finals. Is that going to continue?
Findog,
I just posted Kerr's comments to throw some water on all of the Spurs fans "Stackhouse is a criminal", etc. postings. After all, Kerr is one of their own and actually played in the league, so he MIGHT have some credibility with those folks. I agree we need to accept the suspension and move on.
Anyway, I agree with you that Dallas can still win without Stack. Most of all, I agree that Dirk has been a no-show in this entire series. If he doesn't get his head out of his ass in game 5, this series is over.
My understanding is an F1 is where you try to make a play on the ball but get all body. My understanding of F2 is you're not trying to make a play on the ball but instead are trying to send a guy to the deck. I've seen the replay a million times, it's a tossup as far as I'm concerned. For the NBA Finals I would hope the NBA would err on the side of letting both teams be at full strength. I agree with AJ on how the league is so inconsistent on these things. Anyways, Dallas can't whine about how unfair it is or how the refs are letting the Heat play Rileyball. For karmic reasons, you don't release parade plans when the series hasn't even changed venues. Riley is one of the alltime great villains in the league for taking the Bad Boys style and amping it up with the Knicks, but the owner shouldn't be going on Letterman and calling him out for it while the series is going on, no matter how true it is. They didn't get any help from the refs down the stretch in G3 but they have no one but themselves to blame for not executing and putting the Heat down when they had the chance.
But since this suspension is unfair and you can bet Riley was working the league office behind the scenes, not to mention all of the other karmic sins the key figures on the Heat have committed over the years, maybe the karmic scales will be swinging back to Dallas.
As bad as Miami has been so far to them, a win in G5 totally cancels out the past two games. Miami's not winning two straight in Dallas.
You could tell Stackhouse didn't even go for the ball. And Riley isn't working the officals. He's not the one who sends in tapes after every game of what the refs did wrong to his team. (Not saying that is working the officials, but that would be more evidence of attempting to do so)
Stackhouse was trying to make a play on the ball. Shaq was protecting the ball on his right side and Stackhouse was coming from the left, so Stack had to go through Shaq to get to the ball. Look at the pic provided up thread.
Shaq himself said in the postgame that it was just a hard foul. And when Pat Riley was asked after the game if he thought it should have been a flagrant two he said no. So maybe Jackson never got around to getting quotes from Shaq.
Stu Jackson must hate the Mavs. Just during this postseason he has given Jason Terry more than Reggie Evans. He has given Mbenga more than Antonio Davis. And now he gives Stackhouse a suspension for a foul that he absolutely had to commit. The refs did their job and correctly called it a flagrant one - now leave it alone.
I’m not mad about this because I think it hurts the Mavs greatly. In fact, Stackhouse has been horrible on defense and was 7 for 27 in the last two games. I’m mad because of the way it was administered.
Stu Jackson is ruining the game. Because he has started making everyone so aware of his presence, officials refuse to hand out flagrant twos and eject players unless it’s absolutely obvious. They know Stu Jackson can just go back and change the call if he feels like it. But that creates a huge problem. If a flagrant two had been called at the time of the foul Stackhouse would have been ejected from a blowout, but now he’s out for an entire crucial game five. A retroactive flagrant two is far more severe than one called during the game, but because of Stu Jackson it’s the only kind we see now.
The manner in which suspensions are handed out, and fouls are upgraded is the number one thing wrong with the league right now.
Ridiculous inconsistency. Embarrassing.
Well to me, it looked like Stack was just trying to foul hard, but oh well. But I agree with you, the league office and the refs are way too inconsistent to EVERY team. Its ruining a lot of games. I hate it and I blame Stern for not doing anything to correct it.
I have to disagree with kerr here, the foul was cheap shot no doubt. When i saw it live i figured that stack would be suspended based on what posey and other have done and got suspended for, and it's totally consistant with what the NBA has been doing this year.
Hitting someone in the air like that is dangerous and often results in injury, throwing a mouth piece doesn't result in injury, what Raja Bell did wouldn't likely have caused an injury but hitting someone in the air like Stack did could have very well ended Shaq's season had he landed wrong on his shoulder for example.
Shaq also said he has been hit harder by his daughters, he's just trying to be classy and not be a thug but i guess dallas fans aren't familar with that sort of thing.Shaq himself said in the postgame that it was just a hard foul. And when Pat Riley was asked after the game if he thought it should have been a flagrant two he said no. So maybe Jackson never got around to getting quotes from Shaq.
Steve Kerr would've been killed if he was the one hit by Stackhouse.
AJ was one of our own too, and now he's a whiner like the rest of you....
Nah, I think his Spur side is coming out...
Nope AJ never whined in the press til he wasn't a Spur anymore.
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