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i'm not sure if this was already posted but here are some articles from a few years back in 2003...the spurs have been defending the refs until now because they have always gotten the benefit of the calls because they are a good defensive team...why can't that same reason be said for the mavs?
2003 Playoffs, number of free throws taken in the Spurs/Mavs series:
Game 2: Spurs 45 Mavs 22
Game 3: Spurs 26 Mavs 6
Game 4: Spurs 31 Mavs 13
By Jim Reeves
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
SAN ANTONIO - Just in case the Mavericks were contemplating the wild and crazy idea of turning the I-35 Series into a one-way street with all signs pointing north to Dallas, the Spurs and the NBA combined to slap that notion right out of their heads Wednesday night.
Technically speaking, it was a speed trap of the first order.
The Mavs never had a chance in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals at the SBC Center. This one was so predictable, it was almost a cliché.
Call it an insane grassy-knoll theory or simply paranoid provincial journalism, but I'm convinced the last thing the NBA wanted was for the Mavs to be up 2-0 on the Spurs with the series headed back to Dallas on Friday night. Not good. Not good at all.
The Spurs' 119-106 victory made sure that traffic will continue to run both ways on I-35 for at least one more trip back to River City and probably more. David Stern can breathe a sigh of relief. He doesn't have two blowout conference finals on his hands.
Granted, chances are the Mavs weren't going to win this one anyway.
Teams don't usually win when their star player -- Dirk Nowitzki in the Mavs' case -- sits out eight minutes in the first half with three quick fouls, or when he hits just 4 of 11 shots while on the floor in the first two periods.
The Mavs don't usually win when Nowitzki, Steve Nash and Nick Van Exel go a combined 5-of-21 while the game is still somewhat in doubt.
And they almost never win when they get hit with five technical fouls in the first half alone. Or when head coach Don Nelson gets tossed before the end of the first quarter for the grievous sin of refusing to join his team in the huddle. Or when assistant coach Del Harris gets run for ... what? I'm still not sure what he did, but he was definitely ready to go.
They almost never win when the other team takes 23 more free throws or makes 26 of 28 in the first half alone.
But wouldn't it have been nice to have discovered what might have happened if the Big Three on the SBC Center floor had been Nowitzki, Nash and Michael Finley instead of overzealous refs Joey Crawford, **** Bavetta and Ted Bernhardt?
Heaven help me, I'm starting to sound like Mark Cuban.
On the other hand, if there wasn't another agenda at work Wednesday night, you'd have a hard time convincing the Mavs.
"It was tough to play through it," Van Exel said of the early one-sided officiating. "The only thing players wish is that players are able to decide and dictate the flow of the game. That's all we ask. I let it take me out of my game tonight."
It not only robbed the Mavs of Nowitzki's presence at a crucial point of the game, but it rattled their concentration and derailed any attempt at setting a quick first-half tempo.
"We have to have [Nowitzki] on the court to win games," Van Exel said.
And Big Nellie on the bench would have helped, too.
Nelson's may have been the most outrageous ejection in sports since umpire Terry Cooney tossed Boston's Roger Clemens for talking to himself in the American League playoffs years ago.
"The manner in which he was ejected tonight was surprising," assistant Donnie Nelson agreed. "That was peculiar."
Not to Crawford.
"[Nelson] tried to show me up, so I ejected him," Crawford told TNT's Craig Sager during a halftime report. "As for Del Harris, he wanted to get thrown out ... he even told me he did, so he came out on the court."
Sager's televised report was released in printed form to the media during the second half ... by the NBA, of course.
"I think the officiating has been awesome," was Cuban's on-the-record quote at halftime. "They've really stepped up and taken control like you'd expect NBA officials to do."
He kept a straight face when he said it, too, which is rather difficult when your tongue is practically sticking through your cheek.
Cuban was a little more straight-forward when he saw the NBA's release of the Sager report after the game.
"I don't understand, how does anybody show up a ref?" Cuban pleaded. "Please, give me an example of how a coach shows up a ref."
Apparently he does so by standing on the sideline, staring at him.
The Mavs made a final, gritty run at the Spurs, slicing a lead that had been as high as 28 points to eight midway through the final period, but that was as close as they would get.
"It took us a whole half to get our focus back, but by then the game was already determined," Van Exel said.
Determined even before the tip, perhaps?
"Did it look like that?" he countered.
Yeah, it kinda looked like that.
You're right. Next game I'll see if Cuban will loan me one of his Mavs' jerseys.
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