Nuggets not happy with Game 5 Officiating
Kenyon Martin almost had to put the towel he was wiping his brow with over his mouth as the questions came at him one by one. Standing in front of his locker after the Lakers beat the Nuggets 103-94 to take a 3-2 series lead Wednesday, Martin simply shook his head each time he was asked about the officiating late in the game.
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From the article:
While Denver was called for eight more fouls, that difference coming in the fourth quarter, there wasn’t an abnormal number of bad calls or missed calls in comparison to the first four games.
According to whom? Did the author watch the game? OK, from memory only, I’ll list some:
1. Chauncey’s offensive foul that took away what should have been a 3-point play. It was clearly a block. One of the worst calls of the series. Even Kobe’s network acknowledged it. I believe it was also CB’s 3rd foul, in the first half, and probably rendered him less effective later on.
2. 3 of the fouls on Nene were at best questionable, at worst complete phantom calls. Including the last one, a block called when he was only playing good D and Gasol plowed into him, that fouled him out. That particular call killed the run where the Nugs had the LA lead down to 4. It was as if the refs knew something might be brewing, and had to stop it. It was that bad. Again, even the four-letter network disagreed with that last call.
3. Melo tried taking the ball to the hole several times in the 4th and was hammered at least twice with no foul called.
4. A few of the 3-point plays the Lakers “earned” in the 4th were also highly suspect.
Sorry, and again, in retrospect, I don’t think the Nugs lost the game because of officiating. They collapsed as well in the late 3rd and all of the 4th. However, the officiating was blatantly one-sided in this game, especially in the 4th. And it was painfully obvious. The NBA should be embarrassed. But my guess is that they aren’t. They’re doing what they can to get their chosen ones in the finals. Hopefully the Nugs can still crash the party.
MHH: Shagging Dater one contributor at a time.
by Bob in Boulder on May 28, 2009 10:29 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
really?
However, the officiating was blatantly one-sided in this game, especially in the 4th. And it was painfully obvious.
Yeah, I guess you’re right. Just looked at the box score… 31 personal fouls to 24… 49 free throws to 35…. just sad. Can’t believe the refs favor the Lakers so much.
Oh wait, my bad. That was the Game 4 box score.
by tandur on May 28, 2009 12:49 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
yep
And in the regular season the Nuggets averaged more free throw attempts than the Lakers as well. In fact, the Nuggets averaged 30.3 and the Lakers 25.5 per game. So in a game with 84 free throws, that means that the Nuggets take 45.6 and the Lakers 38.4.
by NuggBuckets on May 28, 2009 1:13 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
through 5 games
The Nuggets have taken 12 more free throws, while still commiting 10 more fouls.
This indicates two things:
1. The Nuggets get fouled alot more while in the act of shooting than not. This is mainly because they are attacking the basket when fouled.
2. The Nuggets commit far more off-ball fouls than the Lakers do. This can be attributed to composure and basketball IQ.
by tandur on May 28, 2009 1:22 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Or
It could mean that the refs are calling phantom fouls like Chauncey and Nene’s offensive fouls, the supposed moving screen call against Melo when he was trying to receive a pass, and the loose-ball foul on Nene when he reached the ball before Fisher.
There ya go, we just cleaned up 4 of those supposed “basketball IQ” calls just in one game!
by NuggBuckets on May 28, 2009 1:39 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
all decent calls
you’re viewing it through Nugget-colored glasses. As far as your concerned, the Nuggets probably never commit a foul and never deserve a single technical.
You only complain about these because the momentum had shifted, and w/o those fouls, Denver might have had a chance.
The fact is, Denver went 0-9 on a multitude of badly taken, rushed shots, with a few missed bunnies, and a plethora of turnovers. Somehow, I don’t think the refs missed 11 straight fouls on the Nuggets side of the court.
by tandur on May 28, 2009 2:21 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Refs
Personally, I think that the Nuggets deserved to lose last night. When you play that badly in the 4th quarter of a tie ballgame, you should lose. The officiating was awful, though. Let’s point out a few.
1. Everyone talks about the bogus blocking call that fouled Nene out. That was the 3rd of 3 calls on him that weren’t fouls. The worst one was in the 1st quarter when he was going after a loose ball, I believe against Farmar, but I could be wrong. Nene was IN FRONT OF THE LAKER PLAYER and dove for the ball. They called the foul on Nene.
2. Dahntay Jones called for… PALMING THE BALL?! Are you kidding me? I have never – ever seen that called in an NBA game. Every player does it. Why call it there?
3. Bad officiating has nothing to do with the number of fouls called. It has to do with when they are called. Every time the Nuggets went on a run, there were bogus calls (see #‘s 1 & 2 in this comment, for instance). When the game is close, the calls are pretty even, but if the Nuggets are up by more than 3 or 4, then the Lakers suddenly start getting all the calls. That’s ridiculous.
4. How can Pau Gasol play 45 minutes and have 5 blocks, essentially rendering the Nuggets a jump-shooting team by the 4th quarter, and only have 1 personal foul called on him? I’ll answer that – HE CAN’T WITHOUT HELP! This was just awful, especially with the way that the Nuggets big men were getting fouls called on them all night.
As I said, the officials didn’t make the Nuggets lose. They did, however, help the Lakers win. The Nuggets will probably get some more calls tomorrow night, but I guarantee you it won’t be this bad. I just hope that we have a fair game on Sunday.
"Horton is win."
--Horvil Tiki
by wtnelson on May 28, 2009 3:33 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs
1. Everyone talks about the bogus blocking call that fouled Nene out. That was the 3rd of 3 calls on him that weren’t fouls. The worst one was in the 1st quarter when he was going after a loose ball, I believe against Farmar, but I could be wrong. Nene was IN FRONT OF THE LAKER PLAYER and dove for the ball. They called the foul on Nene.
The Nene-Fisher call: bad call. But the Nene-Gasol call: great call. Nene had 5 fouls, and took a gamble to to try and draw an offensive foul. He flopped on a Gasol move to the basket, but the refs chose not to give him or Pau the call for charging/blocking, seeing Nene’s poor attempt to draw a foul from a player 50+ pounds lighter than him for what it was. But when their legs got tangled, and it took Pau to the ground, the ref was forced to make the call as a foul. Nene put himself in the position by trying to flop, and actually would have not been called for anything had the legs not gotten tangled up, which is completely uncontrollable by everyone involved.
2. Dahntay Jones called for… PALMING THE BALL?! Are you kidding me? I have never – ever seen that called in an NBA game. Every player does it. Why call it there?
Your kidding, right? You’ve never seen the palming violation? Is this your first NBA season? Do you only watch nationally broadcast games (limiting your exposure)? Watch alot more games, especially meaningless regular season games, and you’ll see it PLENTY, done by players who should not be handling the ball in the first place.
3. Bad officiating has nothing to do with the number of fouls called. It has to do with when they are called. Every time the Nuggets went on a run, there were bogus calls (see #‘s 1 & 2 in this comment, for instance). When the game is close, the calls are pretty even, but if the Nuggets are up by more than 3 or 4, then the Lakers suddenly start getting all the calls. That’s ridiculous.
Completely disagree. One thing this Lakers squad has not done well this year is come back from big deficits with regularity (something they did quite well in the 3-peat years). This has often times been due to the Lakers committing stupid fouls on the defensive end, rather than playing solid straight up defense. It’s hard to make a comeback if you can’t force a miss or keep putting the opponent on the line every trip down the floor.
4. How can Pau Gasol play 45 minutes and have 5 blocks, essentially rendering the Nuggets a jump-shooting team by the 4th quarter, and only have 1 personal foul called on him? I’ll answer that – HE CAN’T WITHOUT HELP! This was just awful, especially with the way that the Nuggets big men were getting fouls called on them all night.
It was established early on that the refs were going to, for once, allow big men to jump straight up, arms up (not out), and challenge shots, and if players jumped into their bodies, they would NOT call the foul. This is how Pau plays defense all of the time, and why he’s usually not a blocking machine, as players typically go around him, or he gets called for a foul when he does get a block. The Nuggets on the other hand hacked at players arms, swung down, and came towards the offensive player (see Birdman).
by tandur on May 28, 2009 3:59 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Completely disagree. One thing this Lakers squad has not done well this year is come back from big deficits with regularity (something they did quite well in the 3-peat years). This has often times been due to the Lakers committing stupid fouls on the defensive end, rather than playing solid straight up defense. It’s hard to make a comeback if you can’t force a miss or keep putting the opponent on the line every trip down the floor.
That’s exactly my point. Every time they started to get down by more than 3 or 4, they started getting calls. The Nuggets play a physical game, so obviously there are going to be fouls called. They should just be called the same throughout the game, and they weren’t. It’s so frustrating, and it’s been my biggest rub with the NBA for years.
Your kidding, right? You’ve never seen the palming violation? Is this your first NBA season? Do you only watch nationally broadcast games (limiting your exposure)? Watch alot more games, especially meaningless regular season games, and you’ll see it PLENTY, done by players who should not be handling the ball in the first place.
To your question, this is the first season that I have followed closely in a long time. I’ve always watched, but I’ve never followed it too closely since the days of Mutombo/Ellis/Rauf in Denver. I don’t care who’s handling the ball. Palming is such a bogus call. Why don’t they call it on Chauncey or Kobe? They both do it every time they have the ball. Instead they call it on Dahntay Jones, which to me was an obvious call to pander to Phil Jackson and the Staples Center crowd. Call it on everyone, or don’t call it at all.
I just don’t understand when sports became more about “markets” than about the best teams winning. The Lakers have the best player, but the Nuggets have a better, deeper team. There is clearly a bias from the NBA. Notice every commercial that they play about “Where Will Amazing Happen?” is a Laker highlight. Why don’t they pull out a Bulls, Celtics, or Spurs highlight? And the ABC/ESPN announcing team of Breen/Van Gundy/Jackson has their collective heads so far up Kobe’s ass that I’m sure his corpus cavernosum is certainly full of blood. It’s just painful to watch. Let the teams decide who wins.
"Horton is win."
--Horvil Tiki
by wtnelson on May 28, 2009 4:24 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
markets
umm… San Antonio, Indianapolis, Green Bay, Carolina, Tampa Bay… come back with something better than “it’s about the markets” next time.
I’m going to reprint a quote from Gils_Keloids over at SS&R, who made a great post about the “markets”, and this is only NBA related.
• New York, the largest TV media market in the United States according to a 2004 Nielsen Media ranking, hasn’t made the Finals since 1999, and hasn’t won a championship in 36 years.
• Los Angeles, No. 2 in that Nielsen study, has lost its last two Finals appearances since its threepeat from 2001-03.
• Chicago, No. 3, didn’t make a single Finals from 1966-‘91, when Jordan, Scottie Pippen and company reached full maturity. And since The Last Dance in ’98, the Bulls haven’t been back.
• Philadelphia, fourth, has been to one Finals (2001) since ’83.
• Boston, fifth, won the title last season — its first championship series appearance since ’86.
• San Francisco (the Warriors), No. 6, has been in three Finals series since the franchise moved from Philadelphia in ’62. None of those appearances has come since ’75.
• Dallas, seventh, has made one Finals in the Mavericks’ 29-year history.
• Washington, eighth, has not only not made the Finals since ‘79, but hasn’t been to a conference final since ’79.
• Detroit, 11th, has been in two Finals since the Pistons’ back-to-back titles in ’89 and ’90.
• And Miami, No. 17, has made one Finals since the franchise’s inception in ’88.
You would think someone as all-powerful as Stern — who can, apparantly, control the tides — would have a better batting average.
Click here for the source material.
by tandur on May 29, 2009 12:17 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
That misses the point
Perhaps, though, I shouldn’t have put markets, but rather matchups, but no matter. You can’t tell me they’d rather have San Antonio in there than New York. If you believe that, then you’re simply out of your mind. The thing with teams like New York is that you can’t fix stupid, inept management.
The thing that this article misses is that it’s not about David Stern. This is a relatively new phenomenon that has come about in the past 15 years or so. TV networks control everything in sports, and they’re not shy about showing the fact that they want a certain matchup. In a league like the NBA that in recent years has had an official go to prison and shame the league by charging that the games are corrupt, why would I not believe that there is a certain amount of corruption? The NBA is decent about hiding it, but you simply won’t make me believe that the officials don’t influence the game.
Again, I’m not saying that the Nuggets lost due to the officiating in Game 5. A blind chimp can see that the Nuggets deserved to lose after that dry spell in the 3rd and 4th. It was an incredibly poorly officiated game, though. I have no reason to believe that the NBA isn’t pushing hard to have the Lakers in there, which you can obviously tell from their blatant Laker-love in the commercials, and the announcers kissing Kobe’s ass are just painful to hear. Hell, they were showing a replay the other night of JR Smith driving in the 4th and kicking out to Kleiza for a 3-point shot (one that actually fell). What does Mark Jackson say? “You’ve gotta give Kobe credit…”
"Horton is win."
--Horvil Tiki
by wtnelson on May 29, 2009 10:07 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
It was established early on that the refs were going to, for once, allow big men to jump straight up, arms up (not out), and challenge shots, and if players jumped into their bodies, they would NOT call the foul. This is how Pau plays defense all of the time, and why he’s usually not a blocking machine, as players typically go around him, or he gets called for a foul when he does get a block. The Nuggets on the other hand hacked at players arms, swung down, and came towards the offensive player (see Birdman).
I really don’t want to argue anything as the game is well over and done with, but this paragraph above I just don’t agree with. I take your words here to mean:
1.) The Lakers style of play was “for once” allowed. As Pau “plays defense like this all the time.” To me, basically saying that the Lakers played picture perfect defense … at least for this officiating crew.
2.) While the “Nuggets on the other hand hacked at players arms, swung down, and came towards the offensive player.” Basically saying the Nuggets did not play to the style of how the refs wanted to call the game and therefore were in the wrong all night with their style.
I don’t see the point you are making. Are we to believe that the Lakers were straight up and down all night like you say and being perfect models of defense? While the Nuggets were plowing into guys all night on both ends of the floor? I don’t think this was the case. It doesn’t matter and the game is over, but come on man … Pau isn’t a picture perfect statue out there … no matter if he’s fouling or not there isn’t a player in the league that is a perfect statue out there.
Pickaxe & Roll.com: 5,280 reasons to be a Nuggets fan
by Nate Timmons on May 28, 2009 11:37 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
no
No, the comment about Pau is that, when questioning an NBA referee on how you are supposed to defend an opposing player who is charging into the lane, but you are in the restricted circle, how do you challenge the shot without playing matador defense, or risking a blocking foul. NBA refs, and Stu Jackson, have made it clear that if a defender jumps straight up, with arms up towards the ceiling, and do not INITIATE contact, they will not be called for the foul, as they are only extending their own space, which they have a right to, vertically.
by tandur on May 29, 2009 12:23 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
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