Referees Tonight (Good) EDIT: They Absolutely Ruined The Game (4th Quarter)

[jdpapa3]

The Lakers had the worst FT differential in the playoffs up until the Celtics series and then shot a good amount more than the Celtics in the Finals...I have to think long and hard if I want to stay investing my time, money, and heart into this league.

[Scribbles]

I'm so sick of everyone bashing refs after a loss. I guess its the refs fault that the Celtics gave up 23 offensive boards right? That they had no offense in the 4th quarter?

Please.

The reffing influenced the game though.  They shot more foul shots in the 4th than we did the WHOLE game bro.  The offensive rebounds were a problem but we were in the game with them killing us on the glass, Perkins out, and Ray not hitting.  Once the foul calls started to be made that was when the game turned in LA's favor.  I'm not saying the reffing cost us the game but it surely did influence it.  

[Eddie20]

Come on. Don't go there and edit the title like that.

This was our game to lose. We played hard but came up short.

It was anyone's game to win up until that 4Q. However, not many teams in NBA history could have overcome a FT disparity like the last quarter and still pull it off.

[houseonfire09]

37 to 17 !!!

More importantly:

The Lakers shot 21 free throws in the 4th quarter. We shot 17 for the game. That's 73% of their free throws in one quarter. More importantly, they shot 14 of those free throws in the last 6 minutes of the game. The turning point was at the 6 minute mark, if you recall. Terrible call gifting Gasol free throws, followed by another terrible call gifting Kobe free throws. That was were the lakers took the lead. It is also worth mentioning that they shot more free throws in one quarter than we did the entire game. Did I say that already?

Sounds familiar, like a certain rigged game that happened 8 years ago in that same building.  I want to be done with the NBA after this, but I love these guys too much to do that.  Yeah, we got killed on the offensive rebounds, but the refs handed the title to them in the 4th quarter.  Just makes me sick.

[PosImpos]

The Lakers owned us on the boards and found ways to get to the foul line.  The Celtics couldn't rebound or get to the line late in the game, and their offense sputtered.

Defense is important for winning championships, but if you don't have players who can score when you absolutely need a bucket to hold a lead and you can't force your way inside to get to the line, you lose.

Congrats to the Lakers.  Pau Gasol should be Finals MVP.

[GrandTheftRondo]

The Lakers owned us on the boards and found ways to get to the foul line.  The Celtics couldn't rebound or get to the line late in the game, and their offense sputtered.

Defense is important for winning championships, but if you don't have players who can score when you absolutely need a bucket to hold a lead and you can't force your way inside to get to the line, you lose.

Congrats to the Lakers.  Pau Gasol should be Finals MVP.

Exactly.

[PosImpos]

The Lakers had the worst FT differential in the playoffs up until the Celtics series and then shot a good amount more than the Celtics in the Finals...I have to think long and hard if I want to stay investing my time, money, and heart into this league.

The Celtics didn't do themselves any favors as far as getting to the line.  The Lakers may have benefited from home court advantage, but they also played more aggressively and tenaciously late in the game.

Don't blame the refs.  The Celtics played a [dang]ed good game, but at some point you need some offense to back up the great defense and the Lakers won out on that end.  The fact that they also had a ton more possessions than the Celtics didn't help either.

[Rondo_is_better]

I'm so sick of everyone bashing refs after a loss. I guess its the refs fault that the Celtics gave up 23 offensive boards right? That they had no offense in the 4th quarter?

Please.

If you'll actually read the thread, you'll see that it was a gradual progression. I wasn't upset about the refs to start the game, I thought they were great. 13 of those offensive boards came in that 1st quarter. If I was going to irrationally blame the refs I would have done it a hell of a lot sooner than I did.

[angryguy77]

Go ahead and try to take the high road, this was criminal. Anyone that doesn't believe this game was taken from us in the 4th would have made a great juror in the OJ trial.

[Rondo_is_better]

The Lakers owned us on the boards and found ways to get to the foul line.  The Celtics couldn't rebound or get to the line late in the game, and their offense sputtered.

Defense is important for winning championships, but if you don't have players who can score when you absolutely need a bucket to hold a lead and you can't force your way inside to get to the line, you lose.

Congrats to the Lakers.  Pau Gasol should be Finals MVP.

....am I the only one who sees a problem with the bolded statement? Please, tell me someone else is thinking what I'm thinking here.

[Rondo_is_better]

I'm so sick of everyone bashing refs after a loss. I guess its the refs fault that the Celtics gave up 23 offensive boards right? That they had no offense in the 4th quarter?

Please.

The reffing influenced the game though.  They shot more foul shots in the 4th than we did the WHOLE game bro.  The offensive rebounds were a problem but we were in the game with them killing us on the glass, Perkins out, and Ray not hitting.  Once the foul calls started to be made that was when the game turned in LA's favor.  I'm not saying the reffing cost us the game but it surely did influence it.  

Thank you scribbles, that's all I'm ever saying -- of course rebounding was a big issue, but you can't deny the efffect the refs had on that 4th quarter. And they were SO GOOD to start the game! It was really terrible to see.

[connerhenry43]

I'm so sick of everyone bashing refs after a loss. I guess its the refs fault that the Celtics gave up 23 offensive boards right? That they had no offense in the 4th quarter?

Please.

sorry my friend. that argument does not wash. you do not have to play a perfect game in order to win a game. the lakers missed fts. the lakers had their star player shoot 6-24. both teams played hard. both teams played great defense. both teams left it all on the floor.

however, this game was decided by the refs. they willed the lakers to victory. the lakers may be able to hoist a banner, but the nation saw what happened and everyone knows the better team did not win.

the lakers should put this banner right next to their 2002 rigged title.

not even mad, just disappointed that a sport i loved is not dead to me. i have knows for years how corrupt the league and the commish are but i have turned a blind eye because i love basketball. but no more. done with the nba until they clean up the refs and stern is gone.

this was a travesty and the whole world saw it.

[jdpapa3]

From jsimon on RealGM before game 7:

Lets do a little quick analysis shall we.

Adjusted for intentional fouls through 6 games, the Lakers have out shot the Celtics at the stripe 163-116. That is a whopping difference. Now if you were going to make the argument that the Lakers have been going inside all series and the C's have been shooting jump shots and camping out at the 3 pt. line, you could go down that path. It would be a ludicrous argument mind you, but you could try.


How does that work exactly? If each team has had bad calls go against them, I'd say the Celtic's have had waaaayyyyyy more bad calls go against them than your team. These are the facts, and they are indisputable.

163-116.

And a reply by theman:

FINALS POINTS IN THE PAINT
Game 1: L.A. 48, Boston 30
Game 2: Boston 36, L.A. 26*
*Not including the 25 FT attempts by Bynum/Gasol.
Game 3: Boston 50, L.A. 38
Game 4: Boston 54, L.A. 34
Game 5: Boston 46, L.A. 32
Game 6: L.A. 40, Boston 32

Total Boston 248, L.A. 218

The numbers actually show it is the Celtics who have been playing in the paint. So the jump shooting argument is obviously flawed.

Here is an interest stat. Free Throw attempts per point in the paint
Boston .47 L.A. .75

Put another way for every basket the Celtics make in the paint they average less than one trip to the foul line. On the other hand the fakers average One and a half trips to the free throw line for every basket in the paint they make.

[RockinRyA]

The Lakers owned us on the boards and found ways to get to the foul line.  The Celtics couldn't rebound or get to the line late in the game, and their offense sputtered.

Defense is important for winning championships, but if you don't have players who can score when you absolutely need a bucket to hold a lead and you can't force your way inside to get to the line, you lose.

Congrats to the Lakers.  Pau Gasol should be Finals MVP.

....am I the only one who sees a problem with the bolded statement? Please, tell me someone else is thinking what I'm thinking here.

yeah they found ways to go to the line.  their way? the refs. im sorry but kobe and gasol getting to the line on jumpshots while pierce cannot buy a call is ridiculous

[GreenFaith1819]

Well, my take is this:

The Refs (once again) made some questionable calls, but this was maybe the best "Reffed" game in LA so far.

The one bad call that really stood out to me was the Joey Crawford Special - Pau had just went to the bench with his 2nd foul in the 1st quarter, and then seemingly the next possession KG gets whistled for a call that even the commentators stated was very questionable.

Thus, KG goes to the bench.

Joey wanted to even it up for the Lakers.

Well, that's the extent of my venting here.

With that said, The Lakers did a job on us on the boards, plain and simple.

Overall, I gotta give credit to LA..the board work just out-did the reffing job (which was better overall, I believe).

They just had too many 2nd chance points. And even then, Boston had as much as a 13 pt lead in the 2nd half.

We just seemingly ran out of gas.