Were the refs that bad or did the Celtics force their hand?

[Amonkey]

I think the refs were really the Slam Dunk Contest judges.

[TrueGreen]

I'm sorry to keep repeating this all over the Blog, but Tommy had the quote of the nite:  "Criminally Negligent Officiating". And he certainly was right. This was maybe the worst, most one-sided case of poor officiating I can remember. It's amazing how the C's were able to keep their composure and overcome it.

[MBz]

I'd say it was a combination of both.  Yes we pounded in the paint a lot, but a lot of times there wasn't actual contact.  Powe deserved to go to the link about 6-8 times, but Pierce was more shooting pull ups and turn arounds most of the night. 

[Fafnir]

I'd say it was a combination of both.  Yes we pounded in the paint a lot, but a lot of times there wasn't actual contact.  Powe deserved to go to the link about 6-8 times, but Pierce was more shooting pull ups and turn arounds most of the night. 

Pierce got hip checked in the lane and should have gone to the line a few more times. When they made the run to cut it to 7 I was p---ed two possessions in a row Pierce got knocked down by Side Show Bob and no call. The officiating was okay until the flagrant-two.

[housecall]

If i didn't know any better i would say all 3 refs were residents of Ohio or born in Ohio.

[CoachBo]

Having just completed a DVR review of the game, the officiating was horrid. I would have been ejected.

[dark_lord]

the refs were horrible!  its VERY SAD that the marquee game for the league that night, got the three blind mice to officiate it....way to go stern!

[nickagneta]

It's gotten to the point where across the league, the home team announcers are all criticizing the refs to no end. Just switch games on NBA League Pass and within 2 minutes you'll get an announcer screaming about a bad call. Now, obviously, homerism is definitely a part in that, but in a lot of cases the screaming and yammering is pretty decent criticism. Watching that Cleveland game the other night where LeBron won it with last second free throws on a phantom call, the announcers went off. And rightly so!

I think it's time for the natonal guys to stop protecting these ref's reputations and start hanging them out to dry. ABC, ESPN, and TNT play a ton of money for the rights to telecast the NBA. The least they should demand for their money is competent officiating. They should have their announcers really start to let the refs have it on national television and then, maybe, Stern will be so embarassed by the exposure of his WWE officiating that he'll do something other than appointing some retired general as an officiating overseer.

[housecall]

the refs were horrible!  its VERY SAD that the marquee game for the league that night, got the three blind mice to officiate it....way to go stern!

Kinda reminiscent of the last time the Lakers were in town,another trio of blind mice.

[FLCeltsFan]

The refs were that bad....

[Atzar]

I didn't really have a problem with the fouls that were called on us, the BBD ejection and Ray's T notwithstanding.  I had a problem with the fact that it wasn't called the same way at the other end.  They may have deserved 38 free throws, but we deserved a heck of a lot more than 12.

So yeah, I agree with the original post.

[CoachBo]

It's gotten to the point where across the league, the home team announcers are all criticizing the refs to no end. Just switch games on NBA League Pass and within 2 minutes you'll get an announcer screaming about a bad call. Now, obviously, homerism is definitely a part in that, but in a lot of cases the screaming and yammering is pretty decent criticism. Watching that Cleveland game the other night where LeBron won it with last second free throws on a phantom call, the announcers went off. And rightly so!

I think it's time for the natonal guys to stop protecting these ref's reputations and start hanging them out to dry. ABC, ESPN, and TNT play a ton of money for the rights to telecast the NBA. The least they should demand for their money is competent officiating. They should have their announcers really start to let the refs have it on national television and then, maybe, Stern will be so embarassed by the exposure of his WWE officiating that he'll do something other than appointing some retired general as an officiating overseer.

I think that once you take the green glasses off, you realize the incredible high level of play in this league.

And you realize that the officiating doesn't even begin to approximate that high level of play. I blame Stern for that, quite frankly, and if the owners had any guts, they'd hold him accountable for the discrepancy.

[Tai]

I've said it on Sportsline, and I'll say it again.

The whole nation pretty much said that Game 2 of the NBA Finals was rigged because the C's got a 38-10 FT advantage, including Leon Powe getting 13 FTs, which is of course more than the whole Lakers team. We all remember the Phil Jackson interview. Overall, enough said. So I ask, why should last night's game be thought different other than that the refs played favorites for the Cavs?

The stats are there, just like people said they were for Game 2.

1. The most glaring, of course, is 38-12 in FTs in favor of the Cavs. Oh, so the Celtics got 2 more FTs than the Lakers did against them in Game 2, let's throw a party! Oh wait, we already have an excuse for that; we won! 

2. I just said Powe got 13 FTs in Game 2 to the Laker's 10, right? A good of example of this for last night? Lebron James: 12 FTs for him, 12 FTs for the Celtics. Hmm.

3. We also pretty much agreed that our big men ruled the paint last night, right? Starting with Powe, I repeat again he got 13 FTs in Game 2, eventually getting 21 points. Last night, 3 FTs, yet still got 20 points, along with 11 rebounds. Then you got the Big Baby himself. Just 1 freethrow, and I did see the A1 SAUCE (running gag by me ) he got. Perkins? How about zero?! In 39 minutes, no less! That's compared to Powe's 26, and BBD's 17, obviously due to we know what by now. Combined, they only accounted for 1/3 of the FTs we got for the night. Despite this, they all combined for 40 points. I didn't think Ben Wallace being out would hurt the Cavs that badly.....then again, we still didn't have KG.

4. -While we're still on the 40 points from last night's "physical" Big 3, which were pretty much in the paint, the Celtics scored 50 points total inside the box for the night. And yet, they only got 12 FTs?! 

I'm not saying the game was rigged by any means, but to the people out there, not necessarily this blog, who ranted and raved about Game 2 last season, I'd like to know what they thought of this.

Or are us Celtic fans supposed to clam up because our team won, anyways? 

[cornbreadsmart]

i don't think our physical style of play involved them actually fouling guys a lot. we dominated down low because we broke them off the dribble over and over and over again. the cavs failed to hit the boards. they were WEAK down low. it was more about the cavs weakness than our interior strength. they played PATHETIC down low.there is absolutely a bias against the celtics. i don't know if it's because they don't like particular guys or if it's the celts organization. my dad insists refs hate the celts because of the beatings they put on the rest of the league for so long. how often do you hear mike gorman complain or laugh at the refs? even he was mad. he's already said once this  year "the celts got jobbed tonight." i loved gorman saying last night, "we still no who the best team in the east is." it was'nt anything thuggish that one the game for the c's. not as much toughness as it was hustle and desire. i was so impressed at how the celtics(especially pierce ) were able to keep lebron from penetrating. that had NOTHING to do with physical play. the cavs got very few open perimeter shots. the celtics did this all without kg. i myself UNDERRATED the celtics defense. we made big z into a huge liability by using pierce to pick on the ball. Z  cannot chase ANYONE on that. he's simply too slow.i think the cavs got shocked last night.

[Sweet17]

I think the refs will try to "keep things close" and that's the trouble the C's ran into. I have seen worse reffing though like the Sacramento/Lakers playoff game from a few years back..

Free throw disparity is kind of meaningless because sometimes one team really does foul more. Guys like BBD and Perkins do tend to rack up fouls.