So here’s how it is. Classic match-up. Best in the West and best in the East. Each team giving its best and hammering the other, then the other taking it and giving it back. I think fans of either team would be proud at half time, and would feel okay with the loss either way because it was such a great slugfest. Only then Doc “Cry Me A” Rivers melted down near the end of the half. Throwing a hissy fit over calls that were clearly legitimate, he garnered a technical foul. On the next few fouls (his team was in the penalty early), he glowered at the refs, but kept it cool.
Then the second half. Where we saw perhaps the worst refereed quarter ever. And fans of the Hornets know that is saying something. For the first five minutes or so of the quarter, it was a slugfest. Celtics come out on a run, but then the Bees responded. They went back and forth. It was as nerve wracking as it was great. But then the refs took over. First, a “foul” on David West, where the Celtic is seen clearly in the replay pulling his jersey and yanking him to the ground. Then the Celtics score. Next, David West was called for a charge, when his defender was off his feet (a clear foul on the defender, and a total blown call). Then the Celtics go down and score. Then a third foul. A Celtics score on the other end. Later a CP shooting foul, somehow, inexplicably is called a pre-shooting foul, the cheering crowd looking for 2 points and 1 are disappointed when they see the ref waving it off. The Bees take it out of bounds and then a turnover and C’s score on the other end.
While we’ve written before that a true champion should be able to overcome bad calls, it’s really hard when the team you’re playing is a potential champion also. When you do the math on this stretch, it was not just three bad calls, costing us six points, but twelve because they worked both ends. So basically, this stretch cost us the game. Yes, we lost by twenty, but that was well after the game was out of hand, forcing us to jack up bad shots in desperation and what our back-ups eventually did in the same vein.
So yes, NBA coaches, feel free to lobby, cry, and whine to the refs. Get your technicals. It just might help. And by the way, I love the Celtics. I love Kevin Garnett. So I’m not biased against them. But right now, I’m so bitter that they were given this game on a silver platter, that I am going to be desperately rooting against them in the playoffs. David Stern may want Lakers-Celtics in the finals, but I for one don’t want him to make that decision unilaterally.
Nor should the refs. This game was a travesty. The Hornets will have their revenge.
I had to listen rather than watch this stretch, but I told my lovely wife that this was where the refs were giving the game to the home team. Three offensive fouls on David (37-points-the-last-time) West in 3 minutes was a bit too obvious even for the World Basketball Federation. Are we sure Paul Pierce didn’t grab a folding chair and hit Chris Paul in the back of the head when the Ref was T-ing up the coach? On the other hand, the huge run really started when the Hornets missed 3 consecutive free throws, including two by the MVP. That was a sign of weakness that we couldn’t afford.
Couldn’t believe he missed those shots.
Obviously the officiating wasn’t the only story. But I think it speaks volumes when you look at the first half and we were all saying this was a GREAT tight game, and then several bad calls in a row and suddenly it’s a 12-15 point lead in a span of about 3 minutes? It was noticeable, and before that the officiating hadn’t been noticeable at all– it was about the play.
Of course a mature team rises above and doesnt let it get to them, and the Hornets self destructed instead. At home? I think the crowd starts booing and they regroup. In Boston? You have to be stronger than that. I hope that’s a lesson they take from this game for the playoffs.
The Hornets were a cringe-inducing 15 for 26 at the free throw line. David West, who hasn’t missed in what seems like a stretch of forever, didn’t get to the line once. Huge issue right there.
Oh, and shout out to everyone we met at Bruno’s last night! I almost didn’t go because my cat has been sick at the vet’s the last 2 nights, but it turned out being a lot of fun. Although apparently the Hornets have gone 0-3 on official viewing parties, so maybe they should think about ditching them until next season…
And why exactly my blog appears to be running on Pacific time, I just noticed and I have no idea…
Celtics picked up 24 fouls and the Hornets picked up 21, even with a couple end of game fouls. In the last Hornets-Celtics game (in N.O.) New Orleans complained for 3 straight quarters and the game was called fairly and then the refs called everything the Hornets way.
ironic that you want to focus on rivers as a “cry baby”, any intelligent basketball fan can see the hornets were outplayed on all fronts in the second half. whenever you feel the urge to blame 4 or 5 contested calls for a loss, slow down and realize that realistically there were just as many that could have gone the other way.
i could break down how each of the 3rd quarter offensive fouls on west were legitimate but that wouldn’t be useful to you, i understand this is a site dedicated to hornets “hype” but you make yourselfs and your team look bad trying to deflect the blame to the officiating. a more constructive analysis might involve examining the shot selection and dysfunctional half court offense that hampered the hornet’s offense in the third and fourth quarters.
David West is the kind of guy Byron Scott trusted earlier this season to play nearly half a game with 5 fouls. And he didn’t foul out. He averages 2.8 per game.
Yet he gets 3 in under 2 minutes. We take issue with the game being blown out of hand SPECIFICALLY COINCIDING with that stretch of questionable calls.
We don’t make the team look bad for stating this. Ha. That’s sort of a stretch, isn’t it? Like they know or care who the hell I am. There were other issues, such as poor rebounding, free throw percentage, and forced shots that caused the Hornets to lose the game. THIS POST talked about officiating.
I own the blog. I paid 10 whole bucks for it. Therefore I have no problem with questioning the officiating to my heart’s’ content.
I agree with ticktock6. This post wasn’t saying that the whole game wasn’t called fairly. To the contrary, I feel that the first half was a back and forth of us complaining about some calls and being grateful for others (like all fans do when rooting for their team). Similarly most of the third and the fourth were a scratch. Nor did I complain about the total number of fouls, despite being well aware of them. Rather, my beef was with a specific stretch that completely changed the tenor of the game. And as for the game in New Orleans, you’re mistaken if you think that game was about whining; it was a similarly poorly refereed game. And then the crowd was so incensed by calls by the end of the third quarter that for the rest of that quarter and the entire fourth, they rained boos down whenever a Celtic touched it. That’s what unnerved the usually unflappable C’s, not the refs suddenly calling the game the other way.
Second, I choose to use correct spelling and punctuation in my posts, whether on this blog or elsewhere, including capitalization to begin sentences. But if you want to blame someone for being a “cry baby” don’t blame me. Blame Doc. He’s the one that picked up the technical for it. Second, it’s pretty obvious that intelligent fans can disagree about how that game was called in the second half, because if you look around the internet you’ll see I’m clearly not the only one complaining. Unless of course you’re so blindly biased that you think anyone disagreeing with you is wrong. And as for being completely “outplayed” in the third, the Celtics only won the quarter by 17. The run of 3 specific calls swung the deficit by 12 points. You do the math on how important that stretch was. I notice you say you “could” break down how these non-fouls were actually fouls, but chose not to do so. It’s because you can’t. All three were blown calls. I’m not talking, “aw, gee that shouldn’t have been a foul on my team” blown call, where you wave your hand in the air and frown before turning back to your beer. “I’m talking “are you fucking kidding me?” jumping out of your seat, pounding the table, and throwing your beer at the TV kind of foul, and then repeating the same minus your spilt beer on each and every replay.
All this said, the officiating was NOT the only factor in this game. Championship caliber teams have to overcome bad officiating with good shot selection, impeccable shooting, and tight defense. The Hornets have done this in games prior. Not last night. That means the Celtics won and in some way worked for the win. On the other end of the floor they shot the lights out. My hat is off to them.
But consider this, the NBA is a league renowned for giving questionable calls to superstars in general, and basically hazing rookies not named Lebron. So when you have three potential Hall of Famers in your starting five, you are going to get more calls. It’s bullshit, but that’s how it works. So teams have to overcome this. But I’ll warn all Celtics fans, there was once a team that had four potential Hall of Famers: the 2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers. They marched to the NBA Finals that had been given to them by all pundits in the preseason. Then they lost in the finals to the Detroit. End of story.
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