OT: How bad does the NBA want Detroit vs. San Antonio?

[ecompt]

I made the mistake of watching the last 20 seconds of Detroit-Cleveland tonight, which was enough to disgust me. Officiating in the NBA is worse than wrestling.

[SoCalwarrior]

I would think that the NBA wants Lebron in the finals.  But, maybe you're right because Lebron was hacked beyond a doubt. 

[jutaw22mu]

im a cavs fan and yes, lebron was absolutely hacked.  it should have been called.  but the rebound fell right to larry hughes.  he had a wide open 5 foot shot and he missed....inexcusable.

[tower912]

As a Pistons fan, I am surprised at how much contact is not being called.   But....Marshall had a wide open look and did not make it in game one, and Hughes had a wide open look and did not make it in game two.    From a marketing standpoint, the NBA has to be living in terror of a repeat of one of the lowest TV ratings finals in history.  I thing the Spurs and the Pistons are the best two TEAMS left, but with all of the time, money, and energy that has been spent in the marketing of LeBron, the NBA has to be secretly pulling for him to get to the finals.

[AlumKCof93]

I think if the NBA had their way, they would have the Bulls-Suns in the finals.  Now their screwed regardless of who makes it.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

I made the mistake of watching the last 20 seconds of Detroit-Cleveland tonight, which was enough to disgust me. Officiating in the NBA is worse than wrestling.

Are you insane? The NBA would much rather have LeBron James in the Finals than Rasheed Wallace.

[Norm]

Umm, where was Lebron hacked? Hamilton kept both his arms in the air. When Lebron shot, Rip's arm was straight up trying to block the shot. No contact was made while Lebron was in the motion of shooting. There was some contact when Lebron tried to back in to the lane, but there was no hack on the shot. The announcers said it would have been a hard call to make against Hamilton and that the refs got it right.

[jutaw22mu]

List of fouls committed by detriot in the last minute that weren't called:


-Rasheed Wallace's push off from Varejao on the shot that put the Pistons in the lead.  His arm was fully extended and without the push-off he never would have been in position to catch the pass.  I will admit, despite AV being pushed to the ground the Cavs played pretty good defense but Sheed made a great shot.  However, the shot shouldnt have counted and the Cavs should have had possession.

-James was fouled 2-3 time while driving to the hoop and then while shooting.  Maybe I just saw it much clearer than you because I was watching in HD.  Very blatant foul.  How the officials can swallow their whistles in the ECF on a game-deciding play is beyond me.  If Rip's hands were straight up and down, and there was no contact, Lebron would have easily made that shot.

-After Hughes inexcusably missed his easy jump shot, notice that on the rebound, as AV goes to tip the ball, Sheed blatantly pushes him in the back.  Another foul. 


-Maybe the NBA doesnt want the Pistons in the next round...but someone in Detroit must have gotten to these refs...  It's not fair, for 2 straight games the Cavs have outplayed the Pistons.  Last night they should have had Lebron on the line for 2 at the end.  Who knows, maybe he would have missed them.  The first game the officiating was pretty interesting too but at least the refs didn't decide the last play like they did in game 2.  Lebron should have gone for the layup (more high % shot).

[Pakuni]

I made the mistake of watching the last 20 seconds of Detroit-Cleveland tonight, which was enough to disgust me. Officiating in the NBA is worse than wrestling.

The no-call on that last play questionable. But had you watched the previous 47 minutes and 40 seconds, you would have seen the officials call the game that way the entire night. They "let them play" all night, so the no-call was simply a reflection of how the game was officiated as a whole.

On a side note, how do the NBA Conspiracy Theorists explain the lottery results in just about every important lottery in the post-Ewing era?

1987 (Robinson) = San Antonio
1992 (Shaq) = Orlando
1997 (Duncan) = San Antonio
2003 (LeBron) = Cleveland
2007 (Oden/Durant) = Portland

Not exactly a shining example of the league's preference for stars in major markets.

[jutaw22mu]

I watched the entire game.  Every call that was 50-50 went Detroits way.  Some calls that clearly should have gone Cleveland's favor went to Detroit as well. 

I hope the Cavs take this personally and win 4 straight. 

BTW the NBA doesn't want James in the Finals.  They want his teams to see limited success in Cleveland so that when he becomes a free agent he goes to a bigger market like New York or New Jersey where he can make them even more money.

[ecompt]

PRN, there is no way in hell the NBA wants Cleveland in the finals. They're just waiting to get LeBron out of there and into a more media-centered market.