After turning on Game 4 and watching at least 6 terrible calls all go in Miami's favor in about 5 game minutes, I decided that if David Stern was going to throw all his power behind winning Miami an NBA title, the least I could do was live blog the latest example of the NBA throwing a game through shoddy officiating. By now you know the drill:
5:45 left in the third - Miami is up six. LeBron isolates, elbows Westbrook in the chest, and isn't called for the offensive foul. This is the secret history of this game and this series: if OKC did the same thing it would be a foul, but if Miami does it there is no call. The way you swing a game if you're told to "influence it" is by getting enough fouls on the team you want to lose that they can't play aggressive defense anymore. The officials have done that exceptionally well tonight.
5:01 left in the third - Wade jumps, makes minimal contact with Harden, and then a foul is called. SAME EXACT THING HAPPENS on the other side and no foul is called. Literally identical play. The officiating is sickening in this game. If you do nothing else look to the 5:01 mark in the third quarter to see how fully in Miami's camp the officials are.
3:40 left in the third - Durant can't get a foul call after isolating Wade. On a previous play he drives baseline, adjusts, gets LeBron to hit him in the head with his arm, and then hits the layup. Did he get fouled even when LeBron hit him in the body and head? NO! Of course he didn't. In other news, blogging about this has at least stopped me from yelling at the TV, which is probably healthy. I think at the end of the day I have such a hard time imagining LeBron winning an NBA title that the fact that the NBA is so clearly trying to get him to win by tilting the officiating his way just is hard for me to stomach. This is the same league, however, that made the decision to throw the lottery to give the number one pick to the team it owned this year, however, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.
3:16 left in the third - Close up on Pat Riley ... I feel as if he is evil. In other news, LeBron flops to the ground when Derrick Fisher runs into him. That's another line here: the Heat flop so often Vlade Divac is blushing. Even the announcers are calling it now, after Westbrook drove to the hoop, got shoved, and no call, saying "he got pushed!"
2:12 left in the third - Another foul on James Harden, leading to the announcers saying "how is that on Harden?" Well, it's on Harden because LeBron pushed him, and LeBron already told us he doesn't foul, so it couldn't have been on him. You know it's bad when the duo calling the game are making noise about how terrible the calls are.
1:38 left in the third - nearing the end of the third and the Thunder, who shot more free throws in the NBA than any team other than Denver, have only now gotten to 10 free throws. Maddening. LeBron posts up Harden, who passes it to Bosh, but somehow goes to the free throw line. On a pass. OKC is playing sloppy now, and I have a feeling that the end of this blog is coming sooner rather than later.
End of third - Miami is simply being allowed to play much more physically than OKC, and that is why they will be your 2012 NBA champions. Not because they are more talented, because they aren't. They will win because the NBA wants them to win, and to help them out they are allowing the officials (or instructing them, perhaps) to call the game differently for Miami than OKC. It's like an umpire who has a strike zone from shoulders to knees for one team and the size of a grapefruit for the other. I hope that OKC comes back and finds a way to overcome playing against the Heat and the Thunder, but I doubt they will. If Miami fails to win this year they should break up the team, because they're being given every chance.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
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