The Official Thread of the NBA Playoffs

[Smooth Groove]

Hard to win when you're not getting FTs for the same fouls that you're being called for.  

[Smooth Groove]

18 more FTs for one team in Game 7 

Just bring back Tim Donaghy already. 

[Flannel Boy]

david stern and the NBA are actually damaging the integrity of the game of basketball

nobody can make a shot or layup or anything but bailout FTs

Bitter Kings fan is bitter.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

refs have been horrible

[close]

[Stoney Mason]

I'll just say I disagree with you guys on all the WWE talk. But everybody is entitled to their opinion. On to the Off-season and the Lebron Sweepstakes!

Congrats to Kobe and the Lakers. Kobe has a lot of rings now. I'm not a huge Kobe guy and he had a shitty game tonight but dude has a lot of rings now.

[Smooth Groove]

Whatever, rings is just one component of evaluating a player.  Kobe did shit for his all time legacy with the sub-Pippen performance tonight.   

[etiolate]

it will be interesting to see how fans spin what happened with Kobe

He had a horrid game, and a poor series overall. Put up stats at the cost of his team's success, but still ended up with the win. The press will go back into the Kobe love fest, because thats what it says on their mental cue cards. But I think Kobe cemented himself as sub-Jordan/Magic/Bird level with this series.

[WrikaWrek]

Lol at the number of FT in the 4th for the lakers.

Refs cooked this shit.

[Rman]

Celtics had a 13 point let and just squandered it.  You can't blame the refs for that.

[TakingBackSunday]

I wanted the Lakers to lose less than the Celtics, so I guess I'm...happy?

The real winners this year for the playoffs were the Oklahoma City Thunder.  That team is going to be awesome next year.

Celtics had a 13 point let and just squandered it.  You can't blame the refs for that.

Actually, that's probably some of the "fuck the refs" crew's biggest evidence.

[Smooth Groove]

etiolate, statistical analysis have shown repeatedly and irrefutably that Kobe is simply not clutch but sports fans are too dumb to go beyond cliched logic.  At the end of the day, it is what it is.  

[etiolate]

Celtics had a 13 point let and just squandered it.  You can't blame the refs for that.

refs + pierce isos squandered the lead

Should have just pick n rolled LA to death and hope the Refs don't overcompensate.

[Stoney Mason]

Celtics had a 13 point let and just squandered it.  You can't blame the refs for that.

Rondo and Ray Allen really did in the Celtics. Rondo was the big advantage they had in this series and he just didn't play at the level needed consistently. Ray had that early great game and then just fell apart the rest of the way.

[etiolate]

And as nice as the Thunder look they won't get to the finals until they adopt the ugly sort of ball that was seen tonight. It wasn't like the rest of the series was pretty. The games ebbed and flowed on how the whistles were being blown because both teams are built to work with NBA refs. Durant gets calls, but you have to get in on 'the way' of things in the NBA to be OKed into the finals. That normally means decent sized market, playing to the refs and having the star power. Right now OKC only has one of those things.

[Smooth Groove]

Celtics had a 13 point let and just squandered it.  You can't blame the refs for that.

Rondo and Ray Allen really did in the Celtics. Rondo was the big advantage they had in this series and he just didn't play at the level needed consistently. Ray had that early great game and then just fell apart the rest of the way.

That's what jobbers are supposed to do when putting over the opponent. 

[Phoenix Dark]

The officiating was inconsistent, but this was a pure win for the Lakers. They weren't handed the game by the refs. Lakers were more physical and dominated the boards. The refs started early with the no-calls, letting physical play rule. At that point I figured eventually ticky tack fouls would swing the momentum one way or another. But overall the ticky tack fouls didn't take over.

Bryant played very poorly. But then again, if his teammates were better we'd be talking about him recovering with a nice triple double. Instead Gasol and others kept missing shots.

Great game from Artest

[Smooth Groove]

How the fuck do no-calls lead to 37 FTS? 

bandwagoning piece of trash!   

[ManaByte]

Dumbass Laker "fans" are already rioting in downtown LA.

[etiolate]

we gonna have to get you a less despicable team Saudi man

[Smooth Groove]

Wrath2x and PD, let's meet up at Summer Slam. 

[Phoenix Dark]

Adam Morrison has more championships than Karl Malone 

[etiolate]

I found this series very interesting for its use as a case study of how NBA officiating and the playoffs work. A game where "they let them play" lead to Celtics success while tightly whistled games lead to Lakers success. Even within the final game, the quarter with the most whistles was the Lakers best quarter.

Both teams were physical from the start, so it was not an aggressor thing. That excuse will get flown out there for the refs, but shot charts and the game don't back it up. The Celts took 39% of their shots from outside, while the Lakers took only three percent less, making for 36% of their shots from outside. The Lakers took four more threes than the Celts. Somehow that earned LA more than double the FTAs than Boston. Garnett took 13 shots, most of those coming inside and ended up with 1 FTA. Gasol had 16 attempts, most of those coming inside and got 13 FTAs.

The series swayed game to game in what fouls were called. There was little consistency in anything than other how each team benefited when the calls favored their playstyle, and it is their playstyle that was molded around how the NBA game is called. It was also interesting to see Kobe still try to get the same calls as a perimeter based player now rather than the slasher he was a few years ago.

[Phoenix Dark]

Gasol had 18 rebounds, half of which were on the offensive side. Compared to Garnett's 3 rebounds. It's not surprising that Gasol went to the foul line more. Plus Gasol's scores weren't limited to a bunch of jump shots. The Lakers played a more physical game and dominated both sides of the boards. Why is it surprising they shot more FTs?

[etiolate]

Because they didn't play a more physical game. Both teams were brutally physical from the start. Garnett and Rasheed were battling inside as well. They were just outsized often and Kobe + Artest helped on the boards more than Rayray was helping KG. The board difference wasn't for lack of going inside, but for lack of size.

There was a sequence where KG got fouled going straight to the rim and it was ruled a clean block by Gasol and on the other end Gasol shoots a fadeaway and gets a phantom +1.

[Brehvolution]

There was a sequence where KG got fouled going straight to the rim and it was ruled a clean block by Gasol and on the other end Gasol shoots a fadeaway and gets a phantom +1.

Yep. Replay clearly showed that Gasol got ALL hand but no call. I can't blame this all on the refs though. Celts missed a bunch of easy shots and decided to jump shoot their way to a loss.

[Cormacaroni]

Because they didn't play a more physical game. Both teams were brutally physical from the start. Garnett and Rasheed were battling inside as well. They were just outsized often and Kobe + Artest helped on the boards more than Rayray was helping KG. The board difference wasn't for lack of going inside, but for lack of size.

There was a sequence where KG got fouled going straight to the rim and it was ruled a clean block by Gasol and on the other end Gasol shoots a fadeaway and gets a phantom +1.

It wasn't lack of size...it was KG and Rasheed vs Pau and Odom most of the night! Mark Jackson had it right - the Celtics bigs were getting the stops 'cause they played great physical D. It's just that they have old man legs and can't jump and catch it with both hands in traffic as well as they used to. THAT'S where the Lakers made it up - after the Celtics had stopped the initial play.

Kobe getting the Finals MVP was a bit ironic after that stinker. He had cottonmouth all the way up 'til Fisher hit that 3.

[Cormacaroni]

Anyway, I was rooting hard for the Celtics like I did in '08, but I'm not that broken up that the Lakers won, surprisingly. They played HARD, they took back an incredibly tough game from behind, and it ended up being a great series, if unconventionally so. It's been a long time since I've seen defense so brutal that great offensive players couldn't even get a BAD shot off, and ended up having to let the likes of Artest carry the offense.

Rondo is one of the most electric athletes in sports, but he still needs another year or two in the oven, it seems. If he had a solid jumper and FT shooting, this series would have been done in 6. Sadly, this might have been his last good shot at the Finals for a while.

[Cormacaroni]

oh yeah, and thanks to manabyte for spoiling the game for me with his distinguished mentally-challenged LA riots thread smh

3 of 7 finals results spoiled for me, despite staying off ESPN, news sites, Facebook, twitter, avoiding this thread etc. It's hard to stay uninformed these days.

[Beezy]

6-24 last night for Kobe

I don't ever wanna hear Jordan comparisons again. Mr. Queensbridge came through hard for them last night.

[Smooth Groove]

6-24 last night for Kobe

I don't ever wanna hear Jordan comparisons again. Mr. Queensbridge came through hard for them last night.

.

At least you're in NY.  I've to hear this crap all the time in LA.   

[Beezy]

Kobe dickriders are everywhere and they're all extremely vocal. Fuckin annoying especially half of them are bandwagoners.

[Smooth Groove]

Wrath2X "just happens" to like all the winning teams like Lakers, Brazil football team, Yankees, etc.