NBA 2013 Playoffs

[Brando70]

I think it'll be an interesting series because the teams are very evenly matched. It'll be interesting to see if the layoff hurts San Antonio.

[Inuyasha]

Holy crap! Miami back from the dead. Down 13, then down 5 with under a minute, hail mary goes in by Allen.

Bosh finally steps up the last 2 blocked shots in OT. That's eqivilent of towes or kane scoring a goal in the Stanley Cup Finals.

If the spurs were smart, they should have just had lebrick keep shooting. he was horrendous the last 5 min and all of OT. Kept forcing s*** shots when he had his 3 point guys wide open and they were making 3s tonight.

Game 7, damn it must suck to be the Spurs now. 5 sec away from an NBA title in game 6 poof gone like that!

[RobVarak]

An exciting game that underlined in red all of my problems with the NBA. Unparalleled athletes and a fundamentally broken game.

[Inuyasha]

An exciting game that underlined in red all of my problems with the NBA. Unparalleled athletes and a fundamentally broken game.

yes lots of drama and excitement mixed with sloppy and tired players at the end. Why was Parker out at the end of OT on the last possession?!?!

[Danimal]

An exciting game that underlined in red all of my problems with the NBA. Unparalleled athletes and a fundamentally broken game.

This is why I don't watch the NBA. It's manufactured excitement by use of league officials. I happened to catch the last minute of the OT and its just head scratching how anyone can watch.

[Inuyasha]

I dont see it. all the guys were tired. refs let them play. not like the nfl or nhl don't do the same thing. for example, superbowl 36. nm, lets not bring that up. one of our forum member's head will explode

[dbdynsty25]

I dont see it. all the guys were tired. refs let them play. not like the nfl or nhl don't do the same thing. for example, superbowl 36. nm, lets not bring that up. one of our forum members heads will explode

This. I'd rather see non-calls than just phantom calls. But maybe that's just me. And Inuyasha.

[Inuyasha]

Yup, Spurs missing FTs under a minute had nothing to do w/ the refs.

[Danimal]

I dont see it. all the guys were tired. refs let them play. not like the nfl or nhl don't do the same thing. for example, superbowl 36. nm, lets not bring that up. one of our forum member's head will explode

Well I'm not going to argue for a sport I don't care about. It's obviously better for the NBA if the series goes 7 games and it's better if the Heat win in dramatic fashion.

Also to address the point about the difference between NBA officials and NFL / NHL ones. While they all blow calls, I'm not aware of any official in the NHL or NFL who have done so intentionally to make money. Nor a director of officials offering free trips to give a coach a technical (I know it was college).

The whole product feels fixed to a lot of people and these type of incidents don't exactly help. When that is your image, you have a problem.

[RobVarak]

I'm not even getting to the issue of corruption.

If it was a case of "letting them play" then fine. But there were 17 fouls called in the 4th quarter and OT alone. Some of those were intentional, to be sure, but a large % were not. NBA officials "let them play" until they don't. There's no standard whatsoever. There's not even the slightest impetus toward objectivity. Instead you hear "they all even out" but anyone who's ever watched an NBA game or a playoff series knows that's just not remotely true. Stars get more calls than players deemed less worthy.

Look, I don't want to tell people that love the NBA that they shouldn't or that the game sucks. I'm just saying that for me this is a near deal breaker altogether. I enjoyed the Bulls runs, but the things Jordan got away with were a joke! And for me if you don't have a league that attempts to create an even playing field, you don't have a game that I want to see. Every time I cast eyeballs on a game like tonight I'm reminded of that fact.

It's like a really hot girl that you know is fundamentally a wack job. You don't see her for awhile and then run into her at a party. "Whoa," you think, "I forgot how smoking she is." Then she opens her mouth and starts talking about lighting her ex-boyfriend's house on fire and you face the terrible recollection of her fundamental awfulness.

[Macca00]

It's like a really hot girl that you know is fundamentally a wack job. You don't see her for awhile and then run into her at a party. "Whoa," you think, "I forgot how smoking she is." Then she opens her mouth and starts talking about lighting her ex-boyfriend's house on fire and you face the terrible recollection of her fundamental awfulness.

lol

[fanatic]

I was reminded of why I don't watch the NBA anymore (see comments above - pretty much exactly how I feel), and why I used to obsess about it a long time ago.

The Spurs may have gotten the foul call on Manu perhaps if he hadn't started his "I'm getting fouled" face about 5 seconds before he initiated contact. Combined with the exaggerated flailing of the arms after contact, I can see why the refs would be hesitant to blow the whistle on that one.

Bosh's foul on the final second 3-point fling should have definitely been called. Nothing to misinterpret like the Manu play...pretty much a foul 99.9% of the time if it happens anytime other than the Heat about to win a Game 6 overtime game.

It's hard to decide if things are indeed skewed intentionally or whether the refs just don't have the guts to rule against powerful home teams in the playoffs. Either way, the only way I tune in to Game 7 is if the Spurs are up by 15 with 2 minutes to go.

[jLp vAkEr0]

Really difficult to point the finger at refs when Spurs missed 2 fts late that would have clinched the title.

Spurs had it and botched it.

Plus, luck was just on the Heat side last night.

Both 3's they hit in the final minute of regulation where hit after scrambles for long rebounds. But still, they HAD to make those 3s and made them.

They do deserve some credit too.

[pk500]

An exciting game that underlined in red all of my problems with the NBA. Unparalleled athletes and a fundamentally broken game.

If the NBA is broken, then college hoop must be shattered. The NBA is steak compared to college hoops' ground chuck.

LeBron was fundamentally broken late in the fourth and the OT, but the game was not. LeBron tried to go iso far too often, and that's when Miami is at its worst. Yet the Heat still were able to escape.

If anything, the final two minutes of OT looked like the full 40 minutes of every college game because Joey Crawford and the other zebras swallowed their whistles.

[RobVarak]

An exciting game that underlined in red all of my problems with the NBA. Unparalleled athletes and a fundamentally broken game.

If the NBA is broken, then college hoop must be shattered. The NBA is steak compared to college hoops' ground chuck.

If you saw my posts around tournament time, you know that I agree in spades. The NCAA has decided that the way to create some uniformity in the officiating is to let defensive players do whatever the hell they want as long as their hands are vertical. Bad choice.

[Danimal]

http://deadspin.com/hundreds-of-heat-fa ... socialflow

Stay classy Heat fans.

[Brando70]

The NBA is no more broken than any other sport. There are no pro sports where stars do not get the benefit of calls. There are no pro sports where refs can be wildly inconsistent from game to game and even period to period.

Seriously, the NBA is managed/fixed thing is an illusion like people thinking they are safer in an SUV when they are more likely to be in an accident. I'm not saying there are not a lot of problems, but the fast-paced nature of the sport and the sheer number of opportunities where refs have to make calls naturally lead to more mistakes.

[dbdynsty25]

http://deadspin.com/hundreds-of-heat-fa ... socialflow

Stay classy Heat fans.

What does "class" have to do with leaving a game early? They aren't "real" fans, sure, but has zero to do with how classy they are. I live in LA...I know all about bandwagon, get there late and leave early fans...it's awesome.

[Danimal]

http://deadspin.com/hundreds-of-heat-fa ... socialflow

Stay classy Heat fans.

What does "class" have to do with leaving a game early?

Nothing.

Class has to do with banging on the doors to be let back in. Being aggressive and belligerent to the security guards and the police being called to clear these dip shits out. I wonder if the lady picture flipping the Bulls player the bird was one of the people banging on the door.

[Inuyasha]

I think the day of the hardcore fan are dwindling . I see more and more fans leaving early or coming late. I think people are a whole lot busier these days and have other options of entertainment. Maybe in some select fanbases you still have a hardcore breed of fan, but generally I think it's decreasing.

[dbdynsty25]

http://deadspin.com/hundreds-of-heat-fa ... socialflow

Stay classy Heat fans.

What does "class" have to do with leaving a game early?

Nothing.

Class has to do with banging on the doors to be let back in. Being aggressive and belligerent to the security guards and the police being called to clear these dip shits out. I wonder if the lady picture flipping the Bulls player the bird was one of the people banging on the door.

Pretty sure there are belligerent and agressive fans everywhere. Hell, everyone riots when they win a championship. People are all just idiots...in every town.

[RobVarak]

The NBA is no more broken than any other sport. There are no pro sports where stars do not get the benefit of calls. There are no pro sports where refs can be wildly inconsistent from game to game and even period to period.

Seriously, the NBA is managed/fixed thing is an illusion like people thinking they are safer in an SUV when they are more likely to be in an accident. I'm not saying there are not a lot of problems, but the fast-paced nature of the sport and the sheer number of opportunities where refs have to make calls naturally lead to more mistakes.

You allude to the difference in your second paragraph. In other sports officials are overwhelmed by speed and limited angles, but basketball is especially subject to problems because of the very limited number of players on the court and the tremendous difference in the likelihood of scoring resulting from a foul called or overlooked.

There is famously supposed to be holding on every play in the NFL. But even taking the aphorism as true, it's statistically unlikely that any given holding infraction may have a significant impact on the result of the play...much less the game. An officiating mistake in an NBA game will almost always have a direct impact on the score. Obviously this likelihood explodes exponentially down the stretch of a game.

I'm not even sure that terming it as a "mistake" is appropriate. NBA officials clearly see fouls on almost every play and don't always blow the whistle. Whether it's star power, lack of perceived impact on the play, wanting to "let them play" or whatever they want to rely on as an excuse it's still an arbitrary decision to not enforce the rule.

There are only really two excuses to allow this continue. First is, as has been argued in this thread, that this all evens out over a game/series/season. This is demonstrably false, of course. The non-call on Ginobili will never be corrected, for example. The other is that it doesn't matter. Yes, it's unfair but so is life. There's no real refutation to the idea that chaos should just be accepted, so I don't really try. It's just enough of a deal breaker for me personally.

Officiating in sports won't ever be perfect. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't endeavor to improve it or accept a level of capriciousness that would be intolerable by authority in any other context.

[dbdynsty25]

The foul on Ginobili just happened to be on his third step, so yeah, there could have been a foul, but it should have been travelling first. Pick your poison on the non-call I guess. Bad example.

[RobVarak]

The foul on Ginobili just happened to be on his third step, so yeah, there could have been a foul, but it should have been travelling first. Pick your poison on the non-call I guess. Bad example.

Actually, the perfect example. It's always the fuc&ing Wild West: Lawless and literally arbitrary. The rules are supposed to provide a competition that will allow the athletes to determine wins and losses. The laughable officiating interjects so much randomness that the competition on the court fails to do it's job and results are too often determined by the refs.

Look, I know I'm way out there on this. I think it's a national failure that we still have people behind home plate trying to call balls and strikes when there are a dozen flawless automated systems for doing so. So trust me, I know I'm a bit of a oddball here.

[Pete]

The game of basketball has just gotten too physical. They cannot call the game in which the rule books are written. It has gone too far to ever come back.

I blame it on the Pistons and Knicks of the late 80's to early 90's. They got the reputation as good, hard defensive teams while all they were doing were pretty much mugging the opposition. Soon, teams saw what they were doing, and started doing the same. Now it is commonplace which equates to ugly basketball.

Not to go into a "good ol' days" rant but when I played, you knew if you pretty much touched the offensive player when they had the ball, it was a foul. We learned to move our feet and not reach. Now every level, on every play, a foul call could be called but it is not. I go to my kids' high school team games and I don't even recognize the game.