nash needs to be fined

[nash4mvp]

ARGH!!!!!!!

You know what? To heck with it. We're not going to win the series the way things are being ref'ed. I wish every member of the Suns from bench player to D'Antoni would come out and in no uncertain terms let it rip about how much absolute BS this is. What are they going to do? Suspend the whole team? Screw it! We're going to lose anyway if the refs keep gift wrapping crap like this . . .

I absolutely cannot believe it. This is worse than the no-call when the Spurs had six men on the floor for their last posession . . .

ARGH!!!!

ahhhh i know how you feel. The refs are shutblocking and triping up our players...when we have an open look they call a timeont wtf? can u even do that. PLUs during the last possession there were 21 lakers on the court including kareem malone payton o'neal and the 52 lakers championship team. only slava was missing.

 

[Ode to Ocho]

not for anything he did but for what he should do. he needs to rip the refs a new one in his post game comments.

Nah. Nash has class. He knows the refs didn't cost them that game. He recognized that he screwed up and Kobe made two bizzaro shots.

 

[DeAnna]

Nah. Nash has class. He knows the refs didn't cost them that game. He recognized that he screwed up and Kobe made two bizzaro shots.

Agreed. Eddie Johnson was on TV last night and made a good point - in the final seconds refs are NOT GONNA CALL A FOUL - they don't want to have the outcome of a close game on their hands and players know this.

 

[jibikao]

Agreed. Eddie Johnson was on TV last night and made a good point - in the final seconds refs are NOT GONNA CALL A FOUL - they don't want to have the outcome of a close game on their hands and players know this.

They called a jumpball on Nash against Walton? That's as good as giving them the ball. The Laker didn't foul. They hacked Nash.

 

[golfcardfan]

Agreed jibikao that last sequence was total garbage they gave the ball to the lakers and the game!

 

[myrondizzo]

Agreed. Eddie Johnson was on TV last night and made a good point - in the final seconds refs are NOT GONNA CALL A FOUL - they don't want to have the outcome of a close game on their hands and players know this.

so we should have tackled kobe so that he couldnt of made the last shot? where do you draw the line. they were trying to foul nash to stop the clock and after being slapped and shoved from behind the ref then calls a jump ball so the outcome was in there hands. i dont buy the refs dont call fouls at the end of the game. because it give the team that is behind a huge adavantage. a foul is a foul if its in the first quarter or OT. i dont think that any of the lakers would have argued a foul call. they were kinda shock with the jump ball call.

 

[jibikao]

so we should have tackled kobe so that he couldnt of made the last shot? where do you draw the line. they were trying to foul nash to stop the clock and after being slapped and shoved from behind the ref then calls a jump ball so the outcome was in there hands. i dont buy the refs dont call fouls at the end of the game. because it give the team that is behind a huge adavantage. a foul is a foul if its in the first quarter or OT. i dont think that any of the lakers would have argued a foul call. they were kinda shock with the jump ball call.

Any Faker fan that says that jumpball was the "right" call should be ashamed. They knew that jumpball was a lucky call and good job that Kobe finished that shot off.

 

[elindholm]

so we should have tackled kobe so that he couldnt of made the last shot? where do you draw the line.

Right, that's exactly the problem. No one knows what the rules are. If grabbing on the forearms is okay, how about a hip check? Is that permitted in the final seconds? What if Nash lowered his shoulder to run someone over, would that be okay? What if he traveled while trying to get free? How much shoving should have been allowed on the jump ball?

What the officials fail to realize is that they decide the game either way. It's up to them to make the call, or not, but either way, it's their decision. When the home plate umpire calls strike three in the bottom of the ninth, no one says "You have to let the players play." If it's a strike, it's a strike.

Everyone knows that calls will be different at the end of close games. In a sense, that's not necessarily unfair. But the problem is that no one knows how much different they'll be. How can you make the right decision when you have literally no idea whether something will be a violation or not?

The Suns didn't learn their lesson from Tim Thomas in Game 1. He thought he committed a foul, and the officials disagreed. Message: When in doubt, foul, travel, step on the sideline, anything -- just expand the range of what's considered legal, and dare the officials to call anything. Instead the Suns concluded that they "got away with one" and that, as penance, they should abide by the normal rules for the rest of the series. The Lakers knew better.

 

[dyle_ph1]

Agreed. Eddie Johnson was on TV last night and made a good point - in the final seconds refs are NOT GONNA CALL A FOUL - they don't want to have the outcome of a close game on their hands and players know this.

That is true...when the team who has possession is the one behind and is trying to win the game. However, last night's situation had the team ahead with the ball so the Lakers had to foul the Suns in order to stop the clock and get the ball back. If the refs don't call a foul in that situation, time will just run out, Suns win.

 

[myrondizzo]

i was going to use the same comparison. if an umpire decided he wasnt going to call a strike because he didnt want to determine the outcome of the game what do you think would happen? the better would get up and not swing until he walked. so the best way to not have an effect on the outcome of the game is to continue to call the game the same.

 

[myrondizzo]

That is true...when the team who has possession is the one behind and is trying to win the game. However, last night's situation had the team ahead with the ball so the Lakers had to foul the Suns in order to stop the clock and get the ball back. If the refs don't call a foul in that situation, time will just run out, Suns win.

i didnt think about that. if they truly didnt want to make a call why call a jump ball? why not just let them fight it out until the time ran out? but he did choose to make a call. a player is going to try to get away with as much as possible. the refs have to be there to keep some type of order.

 

[nowagimp]

True, that the officiating has been mostly horrendous in the playoffs, and not just for the lakers/suns series. I was watching the other matchups as well, and it just looked too scripted, too contrived. Phantom calls on Lebrons defender, and no calls on Lebron were numerous, mostly in crunch time. And I like Lebron, its just that the game starts to look too scripted, controlled, it diminishes the sport. The officiating crews seemed to be particularly punitive on the Heat, and I dont even like the heat, so NO bias here. I was actually hoping the Bulls would knock them off, but not this way.


If Nash complains, the refs will be laying for him next year, the same is true of D'Antoni. The NBA punishes those crtitical of referees with future bad calls. Ask Pat Riley and the Heat if complaining about officiating hurts more than it helps. Pat used all his political capital up during the season complaining to the press about the refs treatment of shaq. The Heat and Riley are now being punished. The NBA wants $$ its been going on for years, and Kobe and Lebron are the two biggest draws this year, fact. Ignorant(casual) basketball fans cannot easily appreciate team work, but boy do they lock onto a superhero, or King. After watching the Cavs/Wizards, Bulls/Heat, and Lakers/Suns series, I have concluded that the NBA will make more money(and much is shared with all owners) if Kobe, Lebron etc last longer in the playoffs. The really funny thing is that, of the three teams that actually have a chance this year, none has a marketable superhero type, again. I actually heard a reporter on ESPN saying that the uncalled offensive foul on Kobe for buldozing Nash on a dunk at the end of game 3 shouldnt be called, because it would make the game "less entertaining". Sounds like entertainment,not sport to me. If it gets to that, I'll just watch movies or other sports, cause I dont like faked or scripted sports at all.

I knew that it would be tough if the MVP cant get ANY calls at home in crunchtime. When the series shifted to LA, it just got alot worse. Its an embarassment to the history of the league and what I thought it represented. Hopefully the league will review the films and be duly embarassed and cease this activity next year.

 

[jibikao]

The Suns didn't learn their lesson from Tim Thomas in Game 1. He thought he committed a foul, and the officials disagreed. Message: When in doubt, foul, travel, step on the sideline, anything -- just expand the range of what's considered legal, and dare the officials to call anything. Instead the Suns concluded that they "got away with one" and that, as penance, they should abide by the normal rules for the rest of the series. The Lakers knew better.

I said it many times that I hate that "confession". You don't hear Spurs talk about how Bowen elbow people and got away with it. Why in the hell did TT say we "got away with it"?? Honest people don't deserve good endings. Nobody give a **** about "honest" plays in NBA. We play soft and we act soft. Hell, Nash and coach D even talk soft.

 

[nowagimp]

There are a few things here:

1) I love Shawn Marion, but as we all agree, he never really stepped up his game, and even worse, it appears that nobody really confronted him about it.

2) What happened to the Raja Bell that ripped the team a few weeks ago? He has been playing great against Kobe--probably won't get all agreement from everyone here, but he has been terrific. But he hasn't had the fire that he has to get the team hyped.

3) On one hand, it's understandable WHY an NBA team and its players don't criticize the refs--games and money are lost in such fruitless pursuits. On the other, however, there should be some sort of equalization. YOu can't blame losses (or wins) on official's calls. But there is no denying at all that they have an effect--most of the time, that effect is fairly large in this league.

4) Size was a huge issue for us--defensively, we weren't THAT bad, but we couldn't do anything inside. Barbosa couldn't finish and we didn't run hardly at all. When we DID run, we finished well, but we just didn't run as much as we could have. And I hate the excuse of it just being the playoffs--if we wanted to run, we could have. We have played teams that are slow-down teams in the regular season, and we MADE them run with us.

5) I never thought we could win the title this season, especially after hearing everything about Kurt Thomas. What hurts more is that the Lakers were the team that is beating us (and will probably beat us in this series). But let's face it, the Lakers are playing some of the best basketball of the playoffs of any conference. They came in with a plan and have executed it to perfection. The losses for us have not been bad--we have played absolutely horribly in this series, and we barely lost these games. IF we played half as good as we did during the 11-game winning streak, this series would now be over. But we haven't.

1) Marion is a SF, when will posters stop believeing that he should guard PF and center sized players. Ands yes his offensive energy is diminished by guarding PF, C's.

2) I heard that Raja has a groin injury, so I think guarding Kobe with a groin injury may help explain "where he was".

3) The effect is quite large and jawing with the refs to get calls is a skill that is sometimes as important as a jumpshot. This is unique in professional sports and substantiate the subjectivity of calls. Foul disqualifications, unique to basketball make it worse. The let em play mentality will always favor the bigger players over the smaller players as bigger players can foul smaller players without looking as if they are exerting themselves.

4) Matchups are more important in the playoffs as they will be inevitably exploited. Speed mismatches will be difficult to take advantage of if the refs allow alot of "physical contact". Size mismatches will be money if physical play is endorsed by the officiating. But these playoffs are not just more physical, theyre inconsistent: the heat and Wizards were really penalized with alot of ticky tack fouls.

5) No way we win with out inside game("D" or "O"). The lakers are working the same game plan that every other team would use against the suns: inside out them, pound the offensive glass". I was only suprosed that Phil got Kobe to share the ball, which is incredible. The rest of the playoff will be different for the lakers, the inside game will not be so easy.
As far as the 11 game streak, the playoffs are different, running requires rebounding and stops on defense. The suns allowed 109 ppg after KT went down, and couldn't rebound the ball on defense.

 

[elindholm]

The Suns are not a very good team with their current injuries, but they still should have won this series. We all know it should be 2-2 right now, and I would expect the Suns to win it from there.

 

[luvstobowl]

Agreed. Eddie Johnson was on TV last night and made a good point - in the final seconds refs are NOT GONNA CALL A FOUL - they don't want to have the outcome of a close game on their hands and players know this.

you mean that "no call" at the end of game 1 of the Nets/Pacers series??