Charley Rosen / FOXSports.com
Posted: 9 hours ago

The Spurs are in command of the Western Conference Finals after besting the Jazz 91-79 in a wild, slam-bang contest.

That’s a far cry from Utah’s blowout win in Game 3, and Monday’s loss shows why the Jazz are still a far cry from elite.
First of all, it should be noted that Steve Javie, Ken Mauer, and Joe DeRosa had worse games than any of the players. For no discernible reasons, some flops were ignored, some were penalized, and some were rewarded. And because of the routine mayhem permitted to transpire in the middle, most of the players will no doubt be suffering from scratches, bumps and bruises from their elbows to their fingertips. Things got so chaotic that whenever a whistle sounded the players had no idea what the forthcoming call would be.

Here’s an incident that showed exactly how confused the refs really were: The Spurs had the ball when a pass to the wing was clearly deflected out of bounds by Andrei Kirilenko — but Mauer indicated that Bruce Bowen had touched the ball last and awarded possession to Utah. After a quick conference, however, the three refs determined that Bowen had not touched the ball and that it belonged to San Antonio.

OK. Well done.

But one of the refs was wearing a wire, and during their deliberation Mauer said, “Kirilenko deflected the ball, and I don’t know if it went off Bowen or not.”

Really? Then why did he make the bogus call in the first place?

The only positive outcome of the refs’ collective incompetence is that it didn’t particularly favor either team.

Read Whole Article