Problem is Callahan & Lewis called much the same game in Boston on the 7th in favor of the RocketsThe refs had an off night. I think the NBA should have assigned a higher profile collection of refs to the game since it was going to obviously be a heated contest.
But thankfully the NBA season is 82 games and it'll even out over the course of the season. And really, the NBA must be doing something right this year because there's been very little ref complaining by Spurs fans this season
I feel like the refs would have to pull bats out of their trousers and start beating Manu before some people on this forum would acknowledge that they influenced the game last night. They weren't the reason the Spurs lost, but it didn't help. Throughout the season all teams get terribly refereed games, it happens. Even to the Lakers I'm afraid (although maybe not as much as others)
No one even mentioned the bogus traveling call on Manu in the 2nd half.
Something's happened to Callahan. He was among the most accurate and consistent officials in the game just a few years ago. I was honestly shocked when he wasn't among the 12 officials who called the Finals in 2008. But maybe there's been some slippage in his performance. That would certainly seem to jive with the fact that last night's game is not the first of his this season to be viewed with some controversy. Callahan's thrown in a few pretty bad performances this season, including the completely botched the 6-men on the court fiasco in Portland. I used to swear by Callahan as a guy that wouldn't be swayed by crowds, players, or coaches and who made the absolute right call most of the time. But I'm not sure that's true any more.
Eric Lewis is a terrible official at this level because he guesses too much instead of calling what he sees and seems very uncertain about many of his calls. He seems to have to explain himself and more than once, I've seen him come out after halftime, approach a player and seem to apologize for blowing a call -- in fact, I think he did that with George Hill last night. I've thought for years that Gary Zielinski is the worst official in the NBA, but I think Eric Lewis is quickly entering the running for that crown.
As a related officiating note, I think there's some kind of bad blood between Scott Wall and Tim Duncan.
For a guy who's viewed publicly as so unassuming, Duncan sure does seem to engender his share of animosity from officials.
That was legit, but the problem is if they call it that time, they need to call it the other 500 times a game everyone else does it.
Consistency would make it all better.
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