NBA Playoffs

Mark Cuban was interviewed on a local sports talk show this morning. A very interesting interview. He talked about the reffing in this series and in general was very happy with it. One point that he made, was that before the series, he sent a tape of duncan to the league office in an attempt to get the officials to make the call against duncan when he swipes his hand to swat off the defender. It is a great move, because his feet are so quick that when he swipes his hand, it knocks the defender off balance allowing duncan to drive by the defender or get fouled - or both. The league office agreed with cuban that the move is actually a foul by duncan, but the ref's wouldn't call it. You probably noticed Dell Harris going ballistic last night when the fouls were piling up against the Dallas big men.

Speaking as a big dallas homer, there were many occasions last night when it looked like phantom calls against dallas and no calls against the spurs - and how about that call in OT when devin harris was called for a foul on the inbounds play that gave the spurs a free throw and the ball - I know that call is made from time to time but in a game 7 overtime?? One of the calls against Van Horne - the reff called him for throwing a hip into duncan - the replay clearly showed that he did not move.

Once again, speaking as a homer - on the last play of regulation, dirk blocked the ball from behind - I saw no foul, and it is very rare for the reffs to call a foul on that play. I think that call was exactly the same as game five when dirk got the rebound, fumbled the ball and missed the shot. dirk got jostled around pretty good on that shot as well.

 

It's a bit disingenuous for the owner of the team that just won a playoff series to be happy with the officials, wouldn't you say?

Are you saying that certain rules infractions shouldn't be called in OT of game 7?

FWIW, I don't think there was a foul on the last play of regulation. I think Duncan should have followed the advice of a big redhead, who, although he didn't call the game, would have admonished him to "Throw it down, big man!"

 

If you listen to cuban at all you come to understand that his mouth engages before his brain does - if the mavs win and the officials are bad, or what he preceives as bad - he lets it rip, no matter what the fine.

If he thought the mavs got jobbed last night - which most mavs fans thought, he would have said so.

I do think that the reffs typically swallow thier whistles on the ticky tack stuff in critical times

 

Hmmm, how about in game 3 when Bowen was called for the foul against Dirk? It was the final few seconds and their last possession. The refs blew the whistle and Dallas won the game.

But look, I am smart enough to realize that we were outplayed and outhustled in most of the series. We just didn't have the athletes and I think it could hurt our pschy a bit when Pop doesn't even play half of the team based on his perception that they couldn't do the job. I am no coach, but I still disgree with Pop on not playing Rasho and Nazr at all. They could have at least clogged the middle and banged Dirk up a bit. A couple other guys didn't play any either while we played guys like Horry, Van Excel, and Barry that did very little...

Its not wait until next year, I think exhibition starts in Sept, just a few months away. Now looking forward to the college baseball world series since I have 3 teams capable of doing some damage. And we can't forget about the World Cup where the USA has their best chance yet.

 

That is absolutely true. But they are stuck. Those guys have limited trade value and the Spurs don't have a first round pick this year.

Unfortunately, the Spurs are on the verge of decline. The Mavs though are ascending.

 

Which is fairly ridiculous considering how much contact they made with Duncan on virtually every play. It used to be that if a defender extended their arm into the back of the offensive player, it was a foul. They could hold it out but not push them away. Dampier did it to Duncan the whole series.

Called straight up. Dampier shouldn't have lasted a quarter in any of those games.

Obviously you'd have preferred to "let them play" and have the Spurs get a five second call due to the fact that their cutter couldn't get to the ball?

That was a pretty funny thing consistently through the series. Van Horne got called for breathing while Dampier and various others got very few calls though they road Duncan like a horse.

Not very surprising that you didn't see it. But it wasn't Dirk that had hold of Duncan's arm while he was trying to raise it to shoot. It also wasn't Dirk who bodied up on Manu as he took his shot... a play that the the Spurs were consistently called for fouls on.

"Jostled"? His arms were free and yes there might have been some body contact... but he lost control of the ball all on his own. He just fumbled it.

FTR, I believe that the officiating after the Mavs got the big lead did turn against them. They tightened up on the Mavs but IMO they were only calling the game the way the series should have been called. They weren't making fouls up... just calling ones that they previously let go.

 

As was Dirk at the end of game 6 in a similar situation.

I just get tired of when people's teams lose they automatically blame the officials. It gets old. There were a lot of blown calls in the series, but it was not just against the Spurs.</font>[/QUOTE] I don't automatically do that. But it also gets tiring when someone denies that the style of officiating bears a direct impact on the outcome of games. Consistently, the officials called touch fouls on the Spurs guarding Dallas drivers and let everything short of left hooks go down on the box. Again, I am not sure exactly how the officials decided which fouls to call since most of the fouls were exactly like plays where no fouls were called.

Dallas played well. They took advantage of the breaks they got as well as the style of play partially dictated by what was being called and what wasn't.

This is a great point and a much bigger reason why the Spurs lost than the officials. Pop got outcoached by Avery. </font>[/QUOTE] That is true. He should have played Spurs style whether they won it or went out in 4. They did better than expected but really shouldn't have ever had a hope of winning while playing the Mavs style of game.

Basketball officiating is much like homeplate umpiring. Different officials have different opinions of what constitutes a good play or a foul. As a underclassman in high school I pitched. I didn't throw hard yet but had a very good curve. The problem was that some umpires simply refused to call a curve a strike no matter where it crossed the plate. It was frustrating but you adjust the best you can and go on.

Pop deserves to be second guessed for adjusting in a way that virtually handed the series to Dallas.

 

One last thing. In spite of the Mavs great play and the impact of the officiating (I mean Cuban being happy with it has to tell you something) and the mistakes of Pop... the game/series came down to a very makeable shot by Ginobili who blew it.

 

Should be scary for Pistons fans that Wade can only play 27 minutes in a Heat win in Detroit. Wade is the best individual player on either team.

 

The Heat came in rested and healthy. I for one always thought detroit was no better than third best in the league after dallas and san antonio. Having a health Shaq is a huge plus for Miami, add wade into the mix plus some of thier other upgrades from last year and I really like Miami's chances.

 

Detroit has the talent they do not have a crunch time coach. Yes I am anti-Saunders and yes I am beating a dead horse but I thought I saw a muscle twitch.

 

Go Suns! Watch and learn Chuckster.

 

Well, I thought the mavs would dispatch the suns in six - now I hope for a good seven game series, with the mavs winning the last one at home. I was very dissapointed in shot selection all game long, but especially in coming down the stretch. Devin did not have to put up a shot that quickly, there was still plenty of time on the clock.

I have always loved that whirling dirvish steve nash though - what a great game he played

 

As a Pistons fan its frustrating, we know that the real Detroit Pistons need to show up to win, we know that they are complelty cabable of dominating and controling the pace of the game. Finally they started to show a bit of that in last nights win.

Personally I think they need to get Big Ben involved offensivly a bit more. When he is, he grabs more rebounds and most importantly he plays with a fire that spread out to the rest of the team. Also Chauncy Billups needs to live up to the Mr. Big Shot name he has been given. He has been cold lately. If he comes out of this slump though watch out. He can just bury a team with 3-point shooting.

In the west I think the Suns really can win and I hope they do. Partly because I am anti-any-team-in-Texas, and partly because I think Steve Nash deserves it.