In case anyone who watched the game is wondering, the refs made the right call when Bruce Bowen poked the ball away from Nash in the final minute. I thought so in real time, but I slowed it down and watched it frame-by-frame, just to be doubly sure. Nash had both hands on the ball when Bowen touched it, and the last thing in contact with the ball was Nash's left hand. Besides, is anyone really going to say that the league was favoring the Spurs in calls in this series? Please. We all know it will kill David Stern to see the Spurs in another finals. It's bad enough they're moving on at all.
Anyway, the series against the Hornets will be tough, but I like the matchup for the Spurs. I won't give you any in-depth analysis, but I like this team's chances of going somewhere.
Oh, and Bulls or Knicks fans, if D'Antoni comes to coach your team (as Jack Cobra wrote about earlier today), get used to seeing the face I've posted below. It's pretty much the only one the dude knows how to make. Even ESPN knows it, since they put a similar picture up on their site (I'll post it below the collage my girlfriend created). But, oh yeah, the Spurs are the whiny team in the league. The Suns smell of roses, and never complain about calls.
GO SPURS GO!!!
COMMENTS:
AUTHOR: Jack Cobra
DATE: 04/30/2008 02:58:16 PM
I'll be honest, I only watched the first game of this series and I was appalled at all the flopping the Spurs (especially thomas and bowen) were doing. I'm not a Suns or a Spurs fan so.....
I'm not sure if this was happening the rest of the series but when Bruce Bowen falls over after running into his own man (thomas) on a pick and roll and a foul is called on the Suns defender who didn't touch Bowen....something isn't right. Then they had Thomas flopping every time Shaq entered the lane. It was sad to watch. If the Spurs weren't making a furious comeback at the end I would have turned it off.
The first game set up the entire series and I knew it was over when the Spurs pulled it out in double OT.
This isn't to take anything away from the Spurs, they are a veteran, championship team but I just thought the first game was called pretty poorly.
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AUTHOR: Erin
DATE: 04/30/2008 03:07:39 PM
I saw that play when Bowen tripped over Thomas, and I agree. It was a bad call. There were others in that game that went unfairly against the Spurs. It happens.
The thing is, flopping happens everywhere, on every team. Certain teams, like the Spurs, get called out on it more, frankly because most people have a grudge against them because they are "boring" and because they keep winning. I watch a lot of Spurs games, and I watch a lot of calls go against them, including ones involving the other team flopping. Sometimes more than the average. But I tend to think these things even themselves out. The Suns were certainly not victims in this series.
I don't like flopping, but every team is going to do it until the league decides to do something about it. I mean, every time a guy takes a charge, he's essentially flopping. These are big men hitting other big men. Odds are, most of the time they're not hitting them hard enough to make them fall over, unless the guy falling wants to show the ref he got hit.
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AUTHOR: Erin
DATE: 04/30/2008 03:18:00 PM
One more thing, as an example:
Kobe Bryant is a superstar in the league. People pay to watch him play. So he's allowed to bitch at the refs quite a bit. Granted, he got a fair mount of technicals this year. But I guarantee if anyone on the Spurs (or any lesser stars) took the same approach with refs as Kobe Bryant does, they would have been thrown out of every game. But he can get away with it.
He also gets away with his own brand of flopping that few people ever comment on. Whenever he drives the lane and goes up for a shot, if anyone is anywhere near him, he flails his arms and yells (loudly enough to hear on the local broadcast of the games) as though he has just been stabbed. Even without legitimate contact, this is often enough to get the refs to make the call. It's kind of like flopping, no?
Kobe Bryant had 742 free throw attempts in the regular season, as compared to Tim Duncan, who had 463. I would say that Tim Duncan spends quite a bit of time in the lane, getting hit while taking shots, but Bryant had nearly 300 more free throw attempts. I mean, Dwight Howard, another big man, had 897, to lead the league. Amare Stoudemire? 691. That's quite a discrepancy.
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AUTHOR: Jack Cobra
DATE: 04/30/2008 03:25:02 PM
No doubt, you are correct about the flopping as a whole. Like I said I only watched the first game of the series so I can't say what happened the rest of the time.
But, I watch a lot of NBA games and I've rarely seen that much flopping, outside of Anderson Varajeo and Andres Nocioni. There is flopping but this time it just seemed so over the top. Shaq gets the ball in the post, dribbles once, Thomas acts like he's been shot. Foul on Shaq. Anytime players were near each other they were falling to the ground.
I understand that it's difficult for the refs to pick up on some of the flopping because they make their calls in real-time but there is such a thing as a 'no call'. It's ok for players to fall to the ground and have a situation where neither player fouled the other.
Game 1 was such an important game in this series because of the double overtime that to have flopping play such an integral part in it really ruined the series for me.
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AUTHOR: Jack Cobra
DATE: 04/30/2008 03:42:39 PM
Kobe led the league in tech's during the regular season if I remember correctly. To say that he got off easy, I'm not so sure about. I've seen Duncan and Popovich work the refs just as much as Nash and Kobe do. That's just what those types of players/coaches do. Sure, D'Antoni always looks like he's bitching but that's just his way of doing it. Phil Jax rarely blatantly complains but you can be sure that he's quietly saying something in the refs ear when he needs to. When you see Duncan on the first block during FT's wiping his mouth with his jersey...you know he's talking to the refs. Every person has their own way of communicating, just like in real life.
What Kobe does isn't really right but I'm not sure what it's called. Maybe 'lying'? He's been known to do that an awful lot.
As for the foul shots...what is Duncan known for? The 15-foot bank shot. What are Amare/Howard known for? Dunking. Sure Duncan spends a lot of time on the block but he's not driving towards the basket like any of the players you mention. That's why he's not getting the foul calls that other players are. Plus, when he drives to his left he drops the ball down to his waist which is why you see him get tangled up a lot when players reach in and grab the ball, which is why he works on his jumper.
Again, the Spurs are a great, great team and by no means do I find them 'boring' so I'm not saying that at all. They play team ball and I really like Pop and his non-coaching background.
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AUTHOR: Erin
DATE: 04/30/2008 09:49:34 PM
This is why I don't write about basketball. I tend to not really know what I'm talking about.
But I do know that it's inaccurate to say that the Spurs "flopped their way to a championship," as I've heard detractors claim. I just get a chip on my shoulder when all people can say is that the Spurs are cheaters, floppers and whiners.
Four championships since 1999, and they seriously get no respect, and in fact take more sh*t than any other team in the league, often for no reason.
As far as I'm concerned, they're a dynasty now, even if they don't win the whole thing this year (which I'd like them to do, especially since I put money down a few months ago, when the odds were 9-2 against). If the Celtics had been winning these championships, or the Lakers won the four the Spurs won (instead of the three in a row), I don't think the sports media would be constantly having the "is this a dynasty?" conversation.
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AUTHOR: Jack Cobra
DATE: 05/01/2008 08:23:12 AM
I think most of the people that I talk to that know/love basketball truly don't think that the Spurs 'flopped' their way to all their championships. Their respected for their workman-like effort and ability to play as a team with a coach who's a genius. That's what I usually hear. I think you generally hear the other stuff from Suns fans maybe?
I'm not sure about the Dynasty just yet. they've won 4 out of the last 9 titles but they've been spread apart and none are back to back. Plus, they took three years off after winning their first one. If they win this year I think you'll hear about it a lot more.
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