The refs

[rr2418]

There's nothing wrong with excuses if they are legitimate. The fact is that sometimes, teams win games when they don't deserve to. You're team didn't deserve to win tonight. Not only did Bowen foul Lebron in that last play, he was doing it intentionally. That should've been 3 shots from the line, and I'm confident that Lebron would've made them with the way he was shooting from the line.

You're ring won't mean much, because it has been handed to you.

You're right about one thing, Bowen did foul LeBron intentionally, but wrong about the free throws. LeBron would've shot two "not" three free throws! The foul was not in the act of shooting. I myself think the refs wanted LeBron to make a spectacular game tying shot, so you can blame the refs for that!

[bresilhac]

37% my ass. Lebron got fouled. He should've had a chance to tie the game, but he didn't.

We probably wouldn't have won the series even if we won this game, but it gets irritating when people call Lebron a "golden child" when, in fact, he gets snubbed on a regular basis.

I've had enough of these Cavalier fans whining about the officiating. There's no guarantee that James would have hit all three foul shots had he been given the call. And secondly there were numerous instances of Spurs getting hacked and smacked in the face with no calls being made. But you don't hear James or the Spurs complaining about it. So be a goddamned man about these losses and accept the fact that San Antonio is so far and away superior to Cleveland that it's ridiculous.

Three down, one to go!!!

[Man In Black]

Super Fresh Off The Boat-Recognize that it wasn't about that last 3 attempt but really about those horrendous bricks in the paint the Cavs shot. Talk about putting up a wall, those cats should become honorary masons with that .
That Sideshow Bob Scoop layup that hit nothing was classic.

[klx23]

I understand that you all are annoyed by the whining, but don't resort to all the unnecessary name-calling. SuperFob has a case in saying that there is a misconception that LeBron gets all the calls. He was just using tonight as an example.

You all take things to heart so quickly. Just calm down, geez.

[jbspurs]

There's nothing wrong with excuses if they are legitimate. The fact is that sometimes, teams win games when they don't deserve to. You're team didn't deserve to win tonight. Not only did Bowen foul Lebron in that last play, he was doing it intentionally. That should've been 3 shots from the line, and I'm confident that Lebron would've made them with the way he was shooting from the line.

You're ring won't mean much, because it has been handed to you.

Legit excuse?

Your team just don't know how to win! Not calling a time out with 26 sec to go is just dumb! Ginobli didn't score till the closing min and still couldn't beat them.


RING WON'T MEAN MUCH, BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN HANDED TO YOU

after game 3!!!

[The_Iceman_Cometh]

I think we can all agree that NBA officiating is by far the worst in any major professional sport. I believe that intead of the NBA letting officials like Salvatore, Crawford, Nice, and Eddie Rush have tenures comaprable with Supreme Court judges, they should force them out at a certain point.

Having officials in the league that still remember the Laimbeer flops, the hard "Larry Bird on Rambis" fouls and then expect them to focus on new rules that favor no hand checking on the perimeter, no forearm defending in the paint is too much to ask of them. Most of these refs are from a different time and place where hard fouls were not called 'clear path fouls' or 'flagrant 1's and 2's'.

Time for Stern to bring in some newer blood to the officiating circle that is more in tune with how he wants the game to be officiated, just so we can avoid anymore "It is what it is" statements from him.

[Strike]

I think we can all agree that NBA officiating is by far the worst in any major professional sport. I believe that intead of the NBA letting officials like Salvatore, Crawford, Nice, and Eddie Rush have tenures comaprable with Supreme Court judges, they should force them out at a certain point.

Having officials in the league that still remember the Laimbeer flops, the hard "Larry Bird on Rambis" fouls and then expect them to focus on new rules that favor no hand checking on the perimeter, no forearm defending in the paint is too much to ask of them. Most of these refs are from a different time and place where hard fouls were not called 'clear path fouls' or 'flagrant 1's and 2's'.

Time for Stern to bring in some newer blood to the officiating circle that is more in tune with how he wants the game to be officiated, just so we can avoid anymore "It is what it is" statements from him.

I would LOVE to see the officiating crew in the NBA receive a MAJOR overhaul.
Most of the refs in the league have been doing it so long that they are arrogant and completely closed minded. It's what happens when someone does the same thing for so long. Eventually you become so good at your job (whether you are or you think you are) that it becomes a case of " YOU LITTLE WHIPPER SNAPPERS I'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR DA-DA-DA YEARS AND I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!!"

I manage a grocery department. And as a manager, I'm constantly graded on my performance. If I were to consistantly do a ty job I would be demoted. Why is it that officials in professional sports don't seem to be held up to the same standard?

I understand that mistakes are made. Referees, like us are only fallable humans. But the rate of bad calls/no-calls in every game involving every team in the freaking league is probably the worst rate of efficiency of maybe any professional field.

Basically, it's pathetic.

[JamStone]

unbelievable ...

There are plenty of bad calls either way in every single ing basketball game that has ever been played and that ever will be played. The losing team will always complain about them and point out one or several that "could have" changed the course and/or outcome of the game. It will always happen. Get over it.

And, I bet you didn't have a problem when LeBron drove to the basket and then fell down and got two free throws out of it with extremely minimal contact. But, of course people will always look at game defining calls or no-calls.

And, LeBron is not a whiner. I'll give him that. But, I don't know about him not making excuses as him being classy. I think he wants to complain about the calls, especially the last play. But, he's just as concerned about his image as he is about winning. I think it's more pretentious than it is classy. Everyone ing whines ... everyone. that "no excuse" motto. He really doesn't want to be a hypocrite though. And, he wants to be viewed as "classy" or not a "whiner." Good for him. To me, instead of holding your breath and allowing your veins to pop out of your forehead, just and complain. We already know what you're thinking and what you want to say.

But, anyway, it's rather satisfying to see LeBron get fewer calls than he did in the Detroit series after game 2. Perhaps he expected to get even more favorable calls now that he was on the biggest stage of them all. LeBron is a great talent, really, really phenomenal. He's just up against a better team.

The refs handed nothing over to the Spurs this game or any other in this series. It's absurd to even intimate that.

[spurscenter]

spurs are the lakers of the 2000's -2002

[Obstructed_View]

Here's something I haven't seen anyone mention yet. What would they be talking about if they'd called Bowen's foul and James had hit the three and they'd waved it off? Those people would have lost their damn minds. The officials, by not giving the intentional foul, gave the Cavs a chance to win the game on the floor instead of losing it at the foul line.

[cherylsteele]

There's nothing wrong with excuses if they are legitimate. The fact is that sometimes, teams win games when they don't deserve to. You're team didn't deserve to win tonight. Not only did Bowen foul Lebron in that last play, he was doing it intentionally. That should've been 3 shots from the line, and I'm confident that Lebron would've made them with the way he was shooting from the line.

You're ring won't mean much, because it has been handed to you.

Yes but....the excuses aren't legit.

Here's something for you to think about.......the Spurs played one of the their worst playoff games in their history.....but the Cavs had to top that and played even worse....the Spurs still won after playing so poorly.

The Cavs had their chances to take control of the game when the Spurs went cold for about 4 min., so don't blame the refs blame the Cavs offensive play.

That last play was a foul but IMO it was not a shooting foul. The Spurs had a foul to give and Bowen fouled him before the shot, it should have been ball out on the side.....but alas it wasn't called.

You can also blame Gooden for making stupid rookie-like fouls to get fouled out.