May 15, 2007 1:00 AM

I really hate people complaining about the referees. It’s just so tiresome. And on some level — I may be crazy with this — I feel it is the job of fans to think like champions. Be mentally tough. Play through adversity. Think like a winner, not a whiner.

But this game was something. I was rooting for Phoenix — in the name of a tied series and exciting play deep into the playoffs — and through Phoenix’s comeback I was at first pleasantly surprised as a handful of 50/50 calls went the Suns’ way. But it just kept going. San Antonio couldn’t catch a break. Nash drew a charge on Duncan when he was well inside the no-charge line (UPDATE: I’m most likely wrong about this one, I need to watch the video again, but if indeed Duncan caught the ball inside the line, Nash can draw the foul inside the line), Raja Bell’s flop drew paydirt … By the time Leandro Barbosa barreled into Tony Parker and Parker got called for the foul, I started to feel sort of cheap.

I wanted Phoenix to make the big comeback, but not like that.

I hate to fuel the whiners and conspiracy theorists out there. And it’s premature to say this was really called the Suns’ way. It felt like that from my seat, watching it once in real time.

I would love for an intelligent, non-partial person with a good DVR to break down all the questionable calls and give us a report. From watching it in real time, I feel the referees were a big part of this victory. I’d love to proven wrong.

Of course, plenty more happened. There were great plays by both teams (especially Steve Nash’s left-handed behind-the-back bounce pass in the lane). There may be suspensions. We’ll talk it all out in the days to come.

UPDATE: Adam Hoff at WhatIfSports, who admits he has never been a San Antonio fan at all, and recently examined the calls in Game 2 in this series and found that San Antonio was getting the benefit of the doubt, stayed up late examining every possession of the fourth quarter of Game 4.

San Antonio started the quarter up eight, so it’s a meaningful section of the game. You should read Hoff’s description of every play. He found that of all the foul calls that might have been considered “bad” in the fourth quarter, the the Suns were the beneficiaries of five, and the Spurs were the beneficiaries of none. By his estimation adding in no-calls and violations makes the disparity even greater. Here’s Hoff’s conclusion:

In real time it definitely seemed that Phoenix was getting the majority of the close and/or dubious calls and no-calls and that bore itself out in the “research.” There were a lot of reasons the Suns came back to win (Amare bouncing back, Nash being a straight pimp, and Brent Barry and Michael Finley taking a couple of bad fadeaways), but there is no denying that the calls were a HUGE factor. And beyond the +5 for Phoenix, there were probably a half dozen other calls that were really close and/or not typically called in the fourth quarter of a playoff game (or even during the first quarter of an exhibition game). So the Spurs definitely wore it from the zebras. It felt like an alternate universe, to be honest. And in San Antonio! What a strange night.

Read the article and read the blog

Once again it appears to me that the NBA has manipulated a game at the end to make it close.

Now we have to wait and see if suspensions follow the game 4 scuffle at the end of the fourth quarter. The replay clearly shows Amare and Diaw leave the bench when Robert Horry hip checked Nash into the scores tables. Was it a hard foul? Yes! Was it any harder that the fouls that the Suns had been dishing out all game to Tony Parker? NO! What I really enjoyed was watch the horrible acting job by Nash as he flails his arms over his head to make sure he got he appropriate amount of drama from the referees!

I’m willing to bet that the NBA will not suspend any Suns players because it will ensure a Spurs victory in Phoenix even if Horry is also suspended. The NBA wants and needs the drama this series offers. The Eastern Conference already has the Pistons story line. And don’t forget the King James will make it to the Conference finals for the first time.

All great stories that the NBA can use to promote itself.

Not the same old boring league anymore is it (with a little help for our NBA Refs!

NBARefsSuck

“Man the only team we want, the only team we’ll beat in the First Round of the playoffs is Dallas.”

-Baron Davis (in a March 2007 game, as told to Gilbert Arenas)

PHOENIX (AP) — With blood spewing from a cut on his nose, Steve Nash could only watch from the bench while the San Antonio Spurs put away Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.

“There was nothing I could do,” he said. “It was obviously frustrating, but it was really out of my hands.”

Tim Duncan had 33 points and 16 rebounds — eight offensive — and Tony Parker added 32 points to lead the Spurs to a rugged 111-106 victory Sunday over Nash’s Phoenix Suns.

Nash scored 31 but missed a crucial 45 seconds in the final minute because of the bloody cut on his nose, the result of a head-on collision with Parker with 2:53 to play. The cut required six stitches after the game.

“You only see things like that in a boxing match,” the Spurs’ Robert Horry said, “where a guy cuts his nose and it won’t stop bleeding. You feel bad for the guy because you want to have the best team out there at the end of the game, and he wasn’t out there.”

Michael Finley added 19 points for San Antonio.

Amare Stoudemire had 20 points and 18 rebounds but was just 6-of-19 shooting. Leandro Barbosa scored 18 points for the Suns. Shawn Marion, after a slow start, scored 16, 11 in the final quarter.

The score was a bit high for Duncan’s liking.

“We’d rather play in the 90s, we’d rather play in the 80s,” he said. “That’s our type of game, but we’ve got a lot of guys who are shooting the ball really well. We’ve been moving the ball really well, and the points are going up on the board.”

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Phoenix.

Read the whole article here!

After the game, D’Antoni was still grumbling about two calls — the inbounds foul on Barbosa and one on Stoudemire late in the second quarter.

“There were some calls that just changed the complexion of the game,” he said. “Now right, wrong, I’m not here to judge that, and I’m sure they had all the best intentions in the world. It’s just we didn’t get that break and they changed the complexion of the game.”

But he said the Spurs deserve credit for pulling it out.

“These guys are good,” D’Antoni said. “It’s almost like a heavyweight champion, you’ve got to knock them out. We didn’t do it.”

His admiration was obvious.

Still, the more Avery Johnson raved about Baron Davis, the more you wondered if his comments were meant as a rebuke of his star.

“I mean, how special was he?” Johnson asked. “You’re talking about a guy who refuses to lose. You get a player like that who refuses to lose and has a big heart … he has a lot of heart and strong willpower. Really strong willpower. I had that sort of willpower, but I just wasn’t that good.”

Johnson identifies with Davis, the point guard who willed Golden State to one of the biggest upsets in NBA history.

He does not identify with the Dirk Nowitzki he witnessed in these playoffs.

The purpose here is not to drive a wedge between the two or manufacture a dysfunctional dynamic. Johnson and Nowitzki are professionals and quality individuals. They will always treat each other with respect.

But the two are as different as Cajun fire and German ice. Nowitzki’s response to the Warriors challenge was so passive, so foreign to how Johnson approaches these moments, it’s unrealistic to think there won’t be fallout.

What did Johnson say when he called out his forward before Game 5? Johnson chided him for becoming discouraged too easily. He reminded Nowitzki that he was a star, not a role player.

The Mavericks coach told the media that while he wasn’t as talented as some during his playing days, he still did all he could to impose his will on the game. Johnson didn’t accept defeat or what defenses did to him.

Nowitzki accepted what the Warriors did to him. Golden State wanted him to become a passer, and he did. Golden State wanted him to give up the ball at the first sign of a double-team, and he was only too willing to comply.

Warriors coach Don Nelson not only reduced Nowitzki’s impact on the series, he chipped away at the forward’s confidence.

Johnson is all about confidence. How difficult do you think it is for him to accept a team that won 67 games during the regular season and a player who made a strong MVP push losing their confi- dence at the first sign of trouble?

What bothered Johnson most in the moments after Thursday’s elimination is that his team lacked confidence.

“We just got rattled,” said Johnson, who was careful not to criticize Nowitzki. “And that’s not good.”

Read the whole Article!

“… the probability of a team winning is noticeably affected by the racial composition of the refereeing crew.”

- Justin Wolfers & Joseph Price, authors of an academic study on NBA referees.

NEW YORK — An academic study of NBA officiating found that white referees called fouls at a greater rate against black players than against white players, The New York Times reported on its Web site Tuesday night.

The study by a University of Pennsylvania assistant professor and Cornell graduate student also found that black officials called fouls more frequently against white players than black, but noted that that tendency was not as pronounced.

Justin Wolfers, an assistant professor of business and public policy at Penn’s Wharton School, and Joseph Price, a Cornell graduate student in economics, said the difference in calls “is large enough that the probability of a team winning is noticeably affected by the racial composition of the refereeing crew.”

The study, conducted over a 13-season span through 2004, found that the racial makeup of a three-man officiating crew affected calls by up to 4½ percent.

Read Full Article

The Denver Nuggets were at home in the playoffs, what better time to exact revenge on the suspension of Joey Crawfod. But how? Surely they don’t want to draw the wrath of Stern themselves.

Drive him to do something. It’s the playoffs, it’s passion, it’s frustration…

Don’t give him any calls. Surely he’ll say something, and you can throw him out of the game!

Over the course of the year, the Spurs two top scorers (Tim & Tony) shot free throws at a rate of 41.22 % of their FGA.

At one point during the game last night they showed the stats (up to that point in the game). The two have shot only 4 free throw attempts for the 68 shots attempted. Thats a miserable 5.71% They made calls, they blew the whistle on Najera on the floor as we was about to get dunked on buy Duncan - essentially keeping Najera off the poster. Duncan was clearly upset by the poor officiating, he kept his cool, and lead his team to victory.

Yes officials, Tim Duncan is classier and more professional than you. Then again, the guys selling hot-dogs and cold beers in the stands are classier and more professional.