A so-so game but still a lot of drama, and blown plays

Even when the games are bad, they’re good.

Game 3 of Lakers-Nuggets was hardly played at fever pitch or with great aplomb but you have to admit, it still had some drama down the stretch.

Put it with the first two in the East and the other two in the West and we’ve got some major league compelling conference finals going on. And I have a suspicion we’re in for more as they progress and a couple of long, close, entertaining series.

Which is about all you can ask for.

Don’t forget, we’ll be back around these parts tonight sometime around 8 to chronicle the latest installment of Cavs-Magic and to see what kind of stuff LeBron can conjure up this time.

Until then …

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About last night

Get some work done

If George Karl and his staff aren’t sitting in some room right now devising ways to GET THE FREAKING BALL INBOUNDS, I’d be amazed.

Two losses, both turning on blown inbounds plays in the dying seconds, the first because they had 5-1 Anthony Carter trying to make the pass and the second because Kenyon Martin lollygagged a pass about a yard out of the reach of its intended target.

This, after minutes earlier, Denver had to blow a timeout because the five-second clock was running out.

Incredible.

The troubling part – and I’m sure a whole lot of coaches out there might be able to explain it but I can’t figure out – is why all the Nugget guards and small forwards (the guys you’d like to actually catch the ball) are headed to the backcourt rather than to the sideline or the basket.

Heading to midcourt, if the pass is stolen, like it has been twice, leads to a clear path to the basket; at least if you’re going to blow the play and the guards are coming to the ball or moving towards the basket you’re trying to score on, committing a foul becomes a little bit easier.

But what do I know.

All I know is if you cannot get the ball in during crucial moments, you cannot win.

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Strange non-calls

This whole “what’s a flagrant foul and what isn’t?” seems to have confused me, you, players, coaches and, apparently, every official tooting a whistle these days.

And nothing was worse than the punk – and dangerous – move Dahntay Jones laid on Kobe Bryant last night.

A two-hand shove in the middle of the back when Bryant was already in the air?

Tell me – please, tell me – that isn’t a flagrant foul, which is defined by the league as “flagrant foul-penalty (1) is unnecessary contact committed by a player against an opponent.”

You think it was necessary that Jones, badly beaten on a play, reach up and push an airborne guy in the middle of the back?

Yeah, right.

I’ll tell you what, and Jeff Van Gundy made this point immediately on the broadcast and he’s dead-on right, if Bryant had fallen hard into the stanchion or to the floor, that would have been a flagrant foul.

And the refs would have gotten it right.

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Where’d they go?

The most shocking thing about last night’s game? The non-factors that Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups were.

Now, I don’t think this is going to be a regular thing, both of them are too good to be bad for too long, but for the biggest game of the year, they should have been better.

No field goals in the second half for Anthony after a blistering first quarter? More turnovers in the first quarter than he’d had combined in the first two games by Billups?

What'd the Lakers do to Carmelo? Let's let them tell you.

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On the other hand …

There is no one – and it’s not even remotely close – that I’d rather have with the ball and the game on the line than Kobe Bryant.

Forget LeBron James, never mind Anthony or Billups or Nash or Dirk or any of them.

No one makes plays bigger plays more often than Bryant

And, judging by his comments here, he loves it.

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Quick digression for a worthy cause one last time.

Me, 100 holes of golf, one day, one loooooooooong day on the links.

As I said earlier, it could set the cause of recreational golf back a decade or two but me and my mashie and my niblick and a couple of boxes of balls are off to take part in the Spina Bifida and Hyrdocephalus Association’s major fund-raiser.

Raising money for something close to my heart. And my family.

This is the last time I’ll bother you with this but if you can find a way to slide a donation in, a whole lot of people will appreciate, most of all me.

You can donate by credit credit card at 1-800-387-1575 or 416-214-1056 or go here and follow the icon you see at the left.

All tax deductible.

Me? Well, I’ve hit balls a couple of times and the old gentle fade is in mid-season form. I figure if I get 100 holes in and break 500, I’ve done well. If you give money, you’ll have done well, too.

Thanks.

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About two nights ago

This is old but so am I so stick with me here.

I want the next guy who tells me how the league fixes games to ensure the most marketable matchup to remember this: The refs called LeBron James for – of all things – travelling, at home, in a tie game, with 30.9 seconds left in the most significant game of the season for the Cavs. Traveling! At home! Tie game! Half a minute left!

That’s was a gutsy – and correct – call. But not one you’d think would be made.

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Comments

[petro]

Lebron travels far too often... and many times, like the example you cited at the end of the second game with 30.9 seconds left... he is not only taking 3 steps - he is taking a fourth step.

I don't have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I've seen Lebron take for steps and the ref not making the call... YES FOUR STEPS.

Good on the ref for making that call... it's not a gutsy call... it's simply the right call and easy to make for any objective referee.

One thing for sure, because of his fundamental footwork, Kobe hardly ever/ever travels.

[Claire]

About the Cavs Magic game 2 why did SVG put a man on the inbouder? Doubling LBJ and denying him the ball seems smarter to me as 1 second is nearly not enough time to pass back to the person inbounding the ball.

[Mohammed, Ottawa]

Doug, in reference to your Lebron piece regarding the travel call, while I do not think the league blatantly fixes game I've always been of the belief that they very much favour the home team with obvious non-calls, and even moreso during games with marquee players( like Lebron) involved. While the travel call was quite gutsy, a keener eye would let you take notice of a crucial missed call during the waning moments of Game 2. The Cavs training staff was struggling with containing Lebron's bleeding, and should have been forced to take a big team timeout. Instead the officials inexplicably called an official timeout in order to bail out what otherwise could have been a game changing decision. It went unnoticed by plenty watching the game,and I realize hindsight is 20/20 however the game is much likely over if the Cavs do not have a timeout after Turkoglu's huge shot. Such bailouts surely do not place the league's officiating in the greatest light, ditto goes to the missed technical on Mo Williams throwing the ball at Dwight Howard. How do THREE officials miss that one?

[scott]

thanks again doug for keeping us thinking and talking basketball!
i just about had a heart attack when lebron was called for that travel. my wife and i had just been joking about how many steps lebron would actually have to take to get the whistle to blow (she had it at five). he's certainly taken four on lots of other drives so i wonder what the difference was. was it b/c they would have had to call a foul if it wasn't a travel?

[Tom]

They may have caught him on THAT travel, but let's be real, there is no consistency in their calls, and they probably let him get away with lowering shoulders, travelling, double dribbling etc, more than anyone else in the league... I'm not saying the games are fixed, but princess James is highly favoured.

[aditya]

good point about the dahntay jones foul on kobe bryant.... and even a more classless move by jones by clapping his hands after the foul and semi-looking at bryant (just not looking enough at bryant and clapping to his face to warrant a technical), but dahntay jones is classless....

[Mr. Cook]

Though his in-game reaction was less than favourable towards the traveling call (understandable, in the heat of the moment), James' reaction after the game was quite admirable. For those of you who didn't catch it, I would paraphrase him by saying 'I needed to redeem myself with the big shot because of the travel I did on a previous possession, it was a tough call, but the right call and a great one by the refs.'

Classy fellow, maybe they'll start calling travels again in the NBA.

[Matt]

Doug.... Open your eyes. What is a flagrant foul? Is it a shove in the back or is it Kobe's repeated elbows to the throat of anyone who tries to get a rebound (Kobe throwing vicious elbows = x10 between Houston and Denver).

Maybe that's why the refs ignored that one. This guy gets away with more BS defensive plays than anyone in the 12 years I have ever seen watching the NBA. Its actually obscene. If this guy was not one of the most dominent offensive players in the game people would scream he is dirtier than Bruce Bowan.

I agree being shoved in the back is not cool, but neither is a lot of the alleged 'great' defence that has been played by Mr. Bryant. Artest shouldn't have ben tossed from game 2, Kobe definitly should have. Think LA still wins the series if Kobe is suspended for a game? Let the conspiracy commence.