I think that so many fans here want to stay quiet about this because it comes across as whining, as if admitting there was a screw job makes you a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist. But it needs to be said, and said again and again. What happened last night was a travesty.
Let us try to be objective when analyzing this. The first, obvious issue was from the outset, with the ref assignments. There are 12 refs doing the Finals. With 3 per game, for 7 games there are 21 total assignments. This means that each ref should be doing 1 or 2 games. And yet Joey Crawford, known as "Laker Joey" in many circles (for his impeccable record when they are the home team), gets the call for game 7, his 3rd in the series (also having done key games 1 and 5).
Perhaps the league, if questioned about this assignment, would say "he's the best ref, so we want him in the best games". We will never know because no one will question the assignment for fear of fine, suspension, or media boycott. Why is the NBA so secretive about these matters? Why isn't there complete transparency over a process whose results are often so controversial and so key to the outcome of games? At the very least this would assuage the claims of conspiracy.
What we do know is that Joey is one of the most controversial refs, known for player bias, a short temper, and being heavily involved in the game. He was even suspended by the league, something that is unheard of for a ref. And yet he gets the call over 9 of the other "best" refs, 4 of whom had only done a single game in the series. At the very least, the league had to know that this would result in a allegations of a fix.
Onto the game. The singlemost important thing a ref crew can do for a game is to call it consistently. Pick a style-- tight or loose-- and stick with it all game, equally for both teams. You'd think that the "best ref" in the NBA would do this for game 7, but not only did he fail to, he failed in a quite blatant and egregious manner. This was one of the most imbalanced games in NBA history. The first 32 minutes were called extremely loosely, while the last 16 extremely tightly. And why? One can only fathom to cater to a particular team's strength, and another's weakness.
Make no bones about it: this game was won at the FT line. I keep hearing this stuff about how if the Celtics rebounded this would have won. Well, the Celtics weren't rebounding all game and were actually at their peak discrepancy in the 3rd when they had a 13 point lead. They blew that lead not by failing to rebound or by missing shots, but by being victimized by the Lakers repeated trips to the line. Trips to the line at a historic rate. It would be one thing if the Lakers hit big shots to win the game, but they didn't. They missed everything. They were simply bailed out time and time again. People say, "rebounds win games". Well, you know what wins games even better? Buckets. And the Lakers didn't have to make any to steal this one. That is a Edited. Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.ing crime.
Here is a post from another board that breaks down some 4th quarter calls:
11:42: Gasol shoots a turnaround jumpshot and makes it. Should not have been an "and 1," Davis went vertical with arms up to contest.
11:07: Borderline loose ball foul on the Celtics. Hadn't been called the rest of the game.
8:45: Kobe Bryant shoots three free throws. Ray Allen got his hand out of the way in time. Again, borderline call the refs hadn't been calling all game.
7:28: Artest runs across the paint, jumps into Pierce and shoots a jumpshot. Gets the and-1 and shouldn't have. Pierce had his ground and contested with arms up.
6:48: Wallace called for a loose ball foul. Again, this was just two people fighting for the rebound. Shouldn't have been called. Celtics in the penalty so Lakers shoot free throws.
5:56: Davis gets called for a loose ball foul. Again, borderline. Celtics in the penalty so Kobe shoots free throws.
3:10: Garnett takes a pass inside from Wallace and slams it. Gasol fouled Garnett on the shot, but no and-1.
2:19: Pierce called for a blocking foul. He had his feet set when Gasol ran into him. Should have been a charge.
1:30: Gasol makes layup, should have been a travel.
0:27: Gasol offensive rebound after he mauls Rondo for it. If you're going to call borderline loose ball fouls on the Celtics this quarter, then this should have been called. Gasol used his right hand to push Rondo to the floor while getting the rebound with his left.
You can probably make an argument either way for most of those calls, and the Celtics had one sketchy call themselves (an Artest foul on Pierce). The point is, the abundance of calls went to the Lakers, and most were ticky-tack in a game that hadn't been called that way. If the "best ref" in the NBA can't maintain consistency for 48 minutes, the league has a serious problem.
***
So the question is, why? Is this just incompetence or conspiracy? It's hard to argue that the league didn't get what it wanted. If the Lakers lose this game, as they were on pace to do before the ticky-tack calls started happening, the league loses
1) another potential dynasty
2) the greatest coach of all time
3) Kobe's legacy / heir to MJ
Now 2010/11 has a compelling storyline, the fourth road to threepeat (and possibly unprecedented modern era fourpeat the following season). It all looks pretty good on paper.
You can argue, yeah, but the Spurs have won titles, 2005 was Spurs/Pistons for crying out loud! Wasn't LBJ supposed to be in the Finals last year and this year? So clearly there isn't a complete fix. I think only the true tinfoil hat wearers believe that.
But it doesn't make you crazy to wonder why they'd call up ol controversial Joey for game 7, either.
