First of all, believe me when I say that blaming the officials is not something that I look to do or enjoy doing. Even when I’m critical of the refs, I feel like the bad calls normally end up going in both directions, and I come away feeling like the winning team still had to earn the victory. As for Dallas’ game one victory? I feel like it may as well have come gift wrapped from Mike Callahan, David Jones, and Ken Mauer (who is quickly becoming one of my least favorite officials). Let me explain: yes, most of the 26 fouls called on the Blazers were fouls (although they did get screwed a couple times, Dirk and Terry got some freebies). However, a lot of the fouls were pretty ticky-tack, and Portland was drawing the same contact at the other end all night long without getting the same calls. The officiating was extremely inconsistent, and that’s the type of thing that really makes me upset. Call the game how you want to call the game–tight, physical, in between, whatever–just make damn sure you call it the same way at both ends. The referees failed to do that last night, and the hometown (particularly Dirk, who took 13 freethrows in the fourth quarter) team benefitted in a major way. Don’t believe me? Check the numbers. How the hell does the team with 46 points in the paint (compared to just 18 for Dallas) come away with 10 more personal fouls and shoot 16 fewer freethrows? Dallas opted for jumpers all night long (give them credit for making them), but still, they were somehow the team that paraded to the stripe. It was blatantly obvious that the calls were totally one-sided. Portland was the more aggressive team as far as attacking the rack, and even more importantly, they were really being hit the same way Dallas was, yet they came away with 10 more personal fouls. Portland got only the obvious whistles, while Dallas got the benefit of the doubt on TONS of touch fouls. It was a pretty discouraging way to end what had been a great day of basketball… I was thoroughly disappointed (especially when ESPN showed a montage of Dirk “taking over” which included nothing but clips of him getting “fouled.” That sh!t was sickening). Said Nate McMillan in his postgame press conference…
“The free throws, I just don’t get that,” McMillan said. “It’s hard for our guys to know how to play out there when it’s called a little different. (The free throw difference was) 19-2 in the fourth quarter. And I felt like we were attacking and guys really didn’t know how to play with the fouls that we’re being called.”
“A lot of touch fouls and I thought that (gave them) momentum and pretty much gave them control of the game in the fourth quarter,” McMillan said. “This game was pretty much decided at the line in the fourth quarter.”
I agree 100% with everything he said. Anyway, do give Dallas credit for knocking their three-balls down. They hit 10 of 19 while Portland clunked 14 of 16. Had the Blazers shot just an average percentage from distance they would’ve won the game. Jason Kidd was on fire all night long, hitting 6 of 10 threes (including the dagger) on his way to 24 points. LaMarcus Aldridge (27 points) and Andre Miller (18/6) were both very good, as I expected. The rest of the Blazers had pretty rough shooting nights… but man, I just can’t get over the calls. I feel like Portland was robbed even though all they had to do to win was make a couple more buckets. Oh well, nothin’ I can do about it.
The Bulls appeared to be on their way to a shocking game one loss to Indiana about three and a half minutes from the final buzzer. They trailed by 10, and Tyler Hansbrough was playing hero with seven consecutive points, including this momentous and-one slam dunk…
Psycho T looked like a seasoned veteran as he dropped 22, but as soon as his seven-point run came to an end, it was Derrick Rose time. You kind of knew it was coming eventually, even though it almost got to the point where it was too late. Following the Hansbrough dunk, Chi-Town ran off six straight points, closing to within four. Credit Joakim Noah for really scrapping hard in the paint… he came up with four of those six. Roy Hibbert then hit a freethrow to put it back to five with two minutes to go, but that would be all she wrote for Indiana. Enter Derrick Rose: he’s just 8-21 at the time, but you know how he’s been in crunch time all season long. Did you really think he wasn’t about to put his team on his back in the biggest game of the season to this point? Put the team on his back he did…
The tie was broken by Kyle Korver, who was set up by none other than D-Rose…
The deal was then sealed by a pair of Rose freethrows, and Chicago took it 104-99. Rose finished with a playoff career-high 39 points (even though his jumper was off, 0-9 from three, 0-7 without the halfcourt heaves). The Pacers played a great game… they led the entire time until that Korver three… but the better, more experienced squad simply stepped up in crunch time. Indiana failed to score in the final two minutes. I figured something like that was likely to happen, but with just 3:30 remaining when the run began, I did start to wonder if it really was too late, even for Rose and company. C’mon son @ me for doubting the main mo’f@ckin’ man Derrick Rose. I feel like this is a great win for the Bulls. The Pacers gave them a scare, and that’s a good thing. I expect them to come out and play much better in game two.
Dwight Howard certainly lived up to his Superman monicker last night. The dude scored 31 points in the first half and 46 in the game… but the Magic got their asses handed to them, 103-93 by the visiting Hawks. Atlanta simply could not miss… all night long. I kept thinking they’d have to go cold eventually, but they never did. Kirk Hinrich and Joe Johnson combined for 38 points on 15-26. Jamal Crawford knocked down four of seven threes on his way to 23 points off the bench. Al Horford and Josh Smith were also solid with 31 points and 14 boards on 50 percent from the field. Well, the bad news for Orlando is that they’ve dropped a home game, obviously. The good news is that Atlanta couldn’t have possibly played a better game (and ORL didn’t play very well, despite big efforts from Dwight and Nelson), and they still lost by just 10. The Hawks will not have another game in this series where they shoot over 51 percent from the field. You can quote me on that. Dwight won’t have another 46-pointer, either, but the entire Magic roster not named Howard or Nelson scored a total of 20 damn points. The role players were downright dreadful. I suppose Hedo Turkeyglu and Gilbert Arenas aren’t the most reliable dudes in the league, but the rest of the crew won’t have another game this bad. J-Rich and Ryan Anderson missed all six of their threes, and Brandon Bass went 0-4. Those three will show up more often than not, and I expect Orlando to win game two. I’m actually feeling somewhat encouraged if I’m the Magic… I mean, so much for the effect of ATL’s size on Dwight Howard. He absolutely tooled on Collins and Pachulia last night, and I’m sure his confidence is now running pretty high. Note: Jameer Nelson scored 20 of his 27 in the third quarter, including a stretch where he put in 15 points in a row.
The only game I didn’t get to see yesterday was Philly at Miami. I can tell you that the Heat won 97-89, that the big three seem to have played well (25/12 for Bosh, 21/14 for James, 17/7/5 for Wade), and that Thad Young sparked a 12-0 Sixer run late in the fourth with a shoe-less layup…
Young scored half of those 12 points (and two more about a minute later) as Philly got as close as one, but they never could quite get over the hump. I didn’t see the game, so I can’t tell you if this was justified, but Miami really won this game due to a 39 to 15 edge in freethrow attempts.
