Did the NBA want to assure the Lakers got #2 seed?

[ziggy]

This game was unbelievable.  Three or four critical calls and everyone one of them went in the Lakers favor.  The foul on Shaq against Theo, was a flat misapplication of the rules.  He fouled Theo before the ball was touched in play, which means Portland gets 1 shot and the ball.  I wonder with Stu Jackson will say anything about that one?
The foul on Miles in double OT was bogus.  The refs bailed the Lakers out.  The refs tried to save the Lakers at the end of OT #1, when Kobe called timeout, giving them just enough to do a catch and shoot.
Over and over and over.

Props to Kobe for making the game winner though, tough shot and he pulled it off.

[WayOutWest]

I thought the same thing on the Theo play, Shaq blew it.

I guess that kinda makes up for all the BS that went the Spurs way last game, no way the Spurs win that game against the Lakers without the dozen or so gifts awarded by the refs to the Spurs.

[Laker Fan]

I didn't see but part of the game (mountain biking, you know) so I can't comment on it too much, but being the fair and realistic poster you have always been Ziggy, I find it difficult to question your assessment, even if I had watched the whole game. However, I will say I do blieve Kobe called that timeout in time. As far as conspiracy theories go, I don't believe in them becasue the evidence doesn't support them, LA, New York, and Chicago would be the only teams with rings were such the case, and despite the joking belief in them by some Spurs and Kings fans, I really do believe there is only one poster in these parts stupid, full of hate, and moronic enough to believe in them for real.

At any rate, whether LA got the benefit of some iffy calls or not, and I've no doubt they may have, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER TEAM IN THE NBA DOES AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER (the yelling was not directed at you dude), it would have all been for not if Sacramento had what it took to suck it up and beat Golden State, they owned the tie breaker and one win would have given them the Pacific, but they couldn't finish the job.

[westkoast]

I find it funny that you are naming iffy calls when it was that way the whole entire game.   Kinda like how Ruben Paterson used his lower body to push Kobe away from the basket when he hit the first shot to put it into overtime?

And Ziggy.....they showed the replay twice on KCAL9 and he clearly had posession wth .6 on the clock when he called the timeout.  TiVO is a good investment.  Must take alot out of you to see them loose but lets not pretend like the refs were out to get the Blazers tonight.

[Laker Fan]

On second thought, maybe the refs made sure Sacramento stunk it up tonight so they could gift the Pacific to LA, yeah, that's the ticket, and maybe they really wanted to make it look like Sacramento CONTROLLED THEIR OWN DESTINY so they would really look bad today. Wow, what a masterpiece of manipulation to arrive at the last game of the season to have it all come together like this, I hope Stern paid them well for such perfect execution of "the plan"

One problem here though, they completely blew it by not preventing Minnesota and Indiana from having better records and thus homecourt throughout, for this conspiracy theory to work, they needed to work it so LA had homecourt no matter what, if I were Stern, I'd want my money back.

Is that "unrealistic" enough for y'all?

[ziggy]

I find it funny that you are naming iffy calls when it was that way the whole entire game.   Kinda like how Ruben Paterson used his lower body to push Kobe away from the basket when he hit the first shot to put it into overtime?

And Ziggy.....they showed the replay twice on KCAL9 and he clearly had posession wth .6 on the clock when he called the timeout.  TiVO is a good investment.  Must take alot out of you to see them loose but lets not pretend like the refs were out to get the Blazers tonight.

Westcoast they played the replay on KGW 4 times, and each time it was the same thing.  He did not have possession until .2 if at all.  TiVo is also only a good investment if you pull the Purple and Gold filters off, you can't see clearly with them on.
I don't buy the conspiracy theories, but they sure do get good threads going.  One thing I do believe in though is incompetance, and that was clearly the case here.  Next time I hear some one say let the players play, and don't bail them out I will ask them to call westcoast and watch his TiVo (sans the filters).  The Lakers threw the ball away in OT, and the ball was loose.  What contact there was, was minimal, less than the normal contact throughout the game.  The contact would not have kept Fisher from putting up a shot.  The officials bailed the Lakers out, GAVE THEM A GIFT.
I will lay money though that not a peep will be heard from Stooge Jackson on the call on Shaq on Theo.  Stooge will fine and suspend an official for making a bad judgement call, but he won't say a peep and about not following a very simple rule.  No judgement required here.  You foul before the ball is in play in the last 2 minutes, and the team gets one shot and possession.  It was put in specifically to deal with Hack-a-Shaq.  I guess it applys only to Hack-A-Shaq, not Hack-By-Shaq.  

[westkoast]

I find it funny that you are naming iffy calls when it was that way the whole entire game.   Kinda like how Ruben Paterson used his lower body to push Kobe away from the basket when he hit the first shot to put it into overtime?

And Ziggy.....they showed the replay twice on KCAL9 and he clearly had posession wth .6 on the clock when he called the timeout.  TiVO is a good investment.  Must take alot out of you to see them loose but lets not pretend like the refs were out to get the Blazers tonight.

Westcoast they played the replay on KGW 4 times, and each time it was the same thing.  He did not have possession until .2 if at all.  TiVo is also only a good investment if you pull the Purple and Gold filters off, you can't see clearly with them on.
I don't buy the conspiracy theories, but they sure do get good threads going.  One thing I do believe in though is incompetance, and that was clearly the case here.  Next time I hear some one say let the players play, and don't bail them out I will ask them to call westcoast and watch his TiVo (sans the filters).  The Lakers threw the ball away in OT, and the ball was loose.  What contact there was, was minimal, less than the normal contact throughout the game.  The contact would not have kept Fisher from putting up a shot.  The officials bailed the Lakers out, GAVE THEM A GIFT.
I will lay money though that not a peep will be heard from Stooge Jackson on the call on Shaq on Theo.  Stooge will fine and suspend an official for making a bad judgement call, but he won't say a peep and about not following a very simple rule.  No judgement required here.  You foul before the ball is in play in the last 2 minutes, and the team gets one shot and possession.  It was put in specifically to deal with Hack-a-Shaq.  I guess it applys only to Hack-A-Shaq, not Hack-By-Shaq.

Ziggy....Once you start to dribble the ball you have possesion.  If you watch it again you will see he did have possesion long before .2 because he had already dribbled the ball before he even picked it up.

Ya let them play.  I believe I was told that when Mike Bibby hit Kobe across the eye in their 3rd meeting.  I also believe I was told that when Shaq was fouled against the Hawks when he tried to tip the ball back in.  Whats funny is if the Blazers won because Kobe missed the shot we wouldnt hear a peep from you about Kobe getting nailed by Ratliff on the last play.  When the Laker fans complain about calls they are told 'Well if you played better it wouldnt have came down to that' but when its a fan of another team its a whole different story.  Just like it is right now.  That same "minimal contact" was called the whole entire night.  Dont act like the refs werent calling touch fouls the whole entire game.  Maybe your shades need to come off first before you tell me I should un-tint mine.......you are getting huffy over a pointless game for your team.  You act as if this game meant anything to the Blazers.  It meant something to the Kings and I dont think the NBA made the Kings choke on purpose so the Lakers could get the 2.

If the refs called half the moving screens or illegal dribbles the Blazers commited tonight it wouldnt have even gone into the first overtime.

[SPURSX3]

I thought the same thing on the Theo play, Shaq blew it.

I guess that kinda makes up for all the BS that went the Spurs way last game, no way the Spurs win that game against the Lakers without the dozen or so gifts awarded by the refs to the Spurs.

somebody call the WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-mbulance for Wow.  you still upset over that game?  gues more trips to the free throw line wasnt good enough for you.  lol


anyway, what was up with LA having to go 2 OVERTIMES AGAINST PORTLAND!!!!!?

 :lol:  :lol:  

[Lurker]

You dumb Californians.  The world doesn't revolve around you.  Conspiracy theories are much more complex.  

This is a obvious manipulation of the first round matchups to satisfy the biggest financial supporter of the NBA - television.  At the same time they have managed to help this year's golden boy (Minnesota) by removing the possibility that they would have to play both the Lakers & Spurs.  Look at the matchups first.  Lakers/Rockets and Kings/Mavs....now from a television point of view these are great.  Yao vs Shaq.  Small ball vs the top offense.  Much better than Lakers/Mavs and Kings/Rockets.

Also Minnesota is given a much easier trip to the WCF.  Their top two opponents will have to face off in the second round.  Minnesota will get the winner of the Kings/Mavs....and IMHO neither will hang with the Wolves in a series.  Especially with Minny having home court.

 :ph34r:  

[sf101]

Conspiracy theorist? I think he may have something Lurker. I was watching Sportscenter last night, and they were interviewing David Stern. Off the top of his head, he asked to name his top 5 players in each position during his tenure.

He said Bird, Magic, Jordan....SHAQ....AND KOBE!!!  :blink:  

[Laker Fan]

Lurker, Lurker, Lurker, when are you gonig to learn? Yes, the world does too revolve around us, always has, always will. Now, that doesn't mean it revolves around NoCal as much as it does the cosmic center down here in LA LA Land, but nevertheless, even our poor relations up north carry more weight than any place in (snicker) Texas.

I suppose it's easy to cry conspiracy theory when you aren't from here and you see that no matter what happens, we still seem to get the pub, the props, the bling bling, pretty much every thing that goes with being the cosmic center, I see your jealosy, I even understand it, even your crybaby bandwagon fans that actually live in SoCal take on that persona, it is that powerful. The problem with that theory is however, besides the ones I mentioned in my previous post, is that small market Minnesota benefitted more than LA, what is up with that? And lowly little hick town Indy, (believe me, if you've ever been there, you'd agree, it's like San Antonio without the TexMex) should they advance to the Finals, will have homecourt throughout, what is up with that? Where does the Cosmic Center get the shaft like that? In a perfectly designed conspiracy, ALL ROADS would go through the Staples Center, (just like all freeways in LA seem to lead to Pasadena  :rolleyes: ).

[SPURSX3]

.... ALL ROADS would go through the Staples Center, (just like all freeways in LA seem to lead to Pasadena  :rolleyes: ).

yup...............we be taking the scenic route back to the finals.  hav some brews waiting for us in the second round, we chug em down before heading on to the WCF......  

[Lurker]

Dan, Dan, Dan.  To give LA that much of an advantage (home court throughout, no tough matchups, etc) would rally even the casual fan to the conspiracy camp.  Stern is much smarter than that.  By having the Lakers with the #2 seed (first round only) it sets up much more DRAMA for the media to feed off.  HAving the two most experienced teams meet in the second round sets up two distinct hyped up matches.  First the battle of the playoff veterans...the only two teams to win championships in the past 5 years...a clash of the titans in essence.  Then the winner of this game will meet the Western Conference winner, the team with the MVP, a battle for the right to dismiss the Eastern foe in the finals (which IMO will be Detroit).

In this regard Reality is right....it is marketing that drives the conspiracy.  As with any clandestine organization you have to follow the money to see the true picture.  Better matchups, more heated games, more maketing blitz, higher ratings, more ad revenue, better tv contract in the future.

And that revolving around SoCal....well that's just the swirl that occurs when you flush the commode.   :lol:

 :ph34r:  

[msc]

Conspiracy? Puh-lease.  Tons of questionable calls throughout the game, both ways, as in every game I've watched in my 29 years.  How did the league conspire to let Kobe make those two insane 3's?  How did the league conspire to make the Nanny-Stopper miss those two free throws?  Well, I suppose they could have bought him off, but the Kobe logic still stands.  There was nothing more hilarious than seeing the Nanny-Stopper celebrating before he bricked those two throws.  What are you celebrating Reuben?  Your vacation?  The games not over yet .... donkey!

[Guest_Randy]

This game was unbelievable.  Three or four critical calls and everyone one of them went in the Lakers favor.  The foul on Shaq against Theo, was a flat misapplication of the rules.  He fouled Theo before the ball was touched in play, which means Portland gets 1 shot and the ball.  I wonder with Stu Jackson will say anything about that one?
The foul on Miles in double OT was bogus.  The refs bailed the Lakers out.  The refs tried to save the Lakers at the end of OT #1, when Kobe called timeout, giving them just enough to do a catch and shoot.
Over and over and over.

Props to Kobe for making the game winner though, tough shot and he pulled it off.

Ziggy, why do you only see the questionable calls FOR the Lakers?  If you go back and watch Kobe's acrobatic shot to send the game into overtime, Patterson was clearly pushing Kobe with his body -- should have been a FT which would have, potentially, won the game.  I'm not saying there weren't bogus calls try to be objective enough to see both sides of the court -- not just one.