MVN - Most Valuable Network

More NBA Shenanigans in Cavs Series

I watched Game 6 from the pre-game to the final seconds, and like many Celtics fans, was furious. As sloppy as it was, the Celtics would have won that game if the officials didn’t mail it in for the LeBrons - I really believe that now.

You can’t possibly make as many bad calls against one team without having an agenda. The conspiracy theories lives on (see Consipracy Theory Takes Life For Celtics which was written from observations of the Hawks series).

Mind you the Celtics suck lemons for getting themselves in that position - what’s missing for these NBA-best Celtics is being able to make their shots and being aggressive on the road - samo, samo for everyone on the road but Garnett and Pierce. And there does seem to be a serious issue of folks worrying about taking a shot unless they are left wide-open.  Perkins won’t even take a shot unless it’s a dunk and Ray Allen seems to have lost his scoring mentatility.  Delonte West’s 3 point flicker at the end of the 2nd half is a perfect example that sometimes you just have to shoot the damn ball, with the team having a post-shot contingency plan to be in position to get a offensive rebound.

To keep things in perspective for the disgruntled Celtics fans, you have to give an allowance for some playoff dysfunctionality for a team that set a record 42 game turnaround during the regular season. I mean, it’s not supposed to be that easy to go from last to first, rags to riches, etc. That only happens in the movies . . . and the NBA wants the fans to know that . . .

The Celtics will win tomorrow, and we fans will continue to have the chinese water torture of the road losses and 7-game series against Detroit and then will likely face the Lakers in the marketing coup staged by the NBA. Yes I’m cynical, but you would be too if you were a Celtics fan after Game 6, where the Cavs squeaked by 74-69.

I will leave you with these snippets from the media, message boards and blogs:

Yahoo NBA recap

“Tell the refs to do the interview. They were just as important,” an angry Rivers shouted at a team official as he walked back from the postgame news conference.

Visitors charged up over last-minute call

“I thought the charge call on Paul . . . well, you guys can take it from there,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. “I mean, that’s a huge call . . . to make, but listen, we played hard. I’m just going to stop there.”

Said Kevin Garnett, “There were questionable calls at the end.”

FL’s Take:

Last night’s officiating was among the worst I have ever seen. Those refs should definitely be investigated. There is an agenda here. Whether it is the refs or the league, it is a travesty to the game.

The following are from Celticsblog thread entitled Nobody Tell Me Officiating Didn’t Decide This One

fairweatherfan:

Just watched the Pierce “charge” again on frame-by-frame on my TiVo - LeBron’s feet not set (that was obvious live though), Pierce’s right arm is on LeBron but does not extend at all - body-to-body contact and LeBron and Pierce throw themselves apart. If Pierce’s arm had come out I could understand the call, but this was ridiculous.

Ray Allen’s layup attempt - as the announcers rightly called, off the board and by the rules a goaltend - not called.

Smith’s inbounds catch in frame-by-frame - Smith catches the ball, lands with both feet (2 steps, or 1 if you consider it a jump stop, which it wasn’t), then immediately pivots his right foot (3 steps, or 2) and then shifts his left foot forward, finally dribbling after planting his left (4 steps, or 3).

Roy Hobbs:

I almost never blame the officiating, because it generally evens out, but man… tonight was terrible. The refs cost us any shot we had in that game.

jkron33:

What makes anyone think for one second that it is a coincidence that not one team except Detroit has won a game away from home? Yes, the officiating was horrible tonight and cost us the game. Any time there is as much of a discrepency in foul shots, you could start to question the officiating. But, come on, the NBA is a business. It is pretty obvious that these refs are told to make series go 7 games. There is just way too much of an economic incentive for David Stern not to make sure that these series go on for as long as possible. It is a ****n joke at this point. I think we will win in 7 and I’m sure that we will advance on to the finals. There is just way too much money involved for David Stern not to make sure that we see a Celtics vs. Lakers finals. I wonder which team he’ll choose to have win that series? Unbelievable. What a joke!

KungPoweChicken:

I almost never pass blame on the referees. However, they left me no choice tonight. This game magnified what has been a mediocre officiated 08′

wdleehi:

This is the only game I felt all post season was lost because of how the game was called.

fmf2:

How about the times Ray got called for playing good defense on Wally? There were two calls Wally got in the second quarter that were completely bogus.

And last but not least, from the intro to the Celtics Stuff Live post-game call-in show:

The Celtics played better on the road in Game 6, but a very poor stretch before and after halftime coupled with even poorer officiating told the story as the Cavs forced a Game 7 on Sunday.

Rightfully, a lot of the criticism of this game focused on the officiating and the ridiculous charge called on Paul Pierce in the game’s waning moments (Thank you Mr. Joe Forte). However it was the Dick Bavetta led crew that called the game in Cleveland’s direction from the opening tap and further widening the gap in free throws attempted by the Celtics and their opponents in the playoffs to an embarassing level despite the Celtics going to the basket fairly often. It was painfully obvious that the stereotypes about NBA officiating calling the game for the home team held true, and some might even buy into far more grandiose conspiracy theories after viewing this one.

Tonight’s callers were similarly disappointed with the way this game was officiated, and the show ultimately devolved into a discussion of how today’s NBA is becoming more and more like the WWF of the 1980’s and 90’s. This then led us down the road of recalling wrestlers and managers of yesteryear in hopes that only they might be able to help the Celtics against what is, at best, inept officiating. Hey, if it worked for Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, it might be able to work for Doc Rivers.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 17th, 2008 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Celtics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.